Water is perhaps the most abundant liquid known to man. It is needed to sustain the lives of all living things and covers nearly three quarters of the earths surface. It is a molecule made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H O). Both hydrogens are bonded to the one oxygen atom covalently.
At room temperature it is a liquid. At temperatures of over 100°C it is a vapour, or gas better known as steam. This is the form in which water (and indeed any other molecule or element.) Has the most kinetic energy, the molecules move quickly and they are completely separated from each other. As the gas cools to a temperature of 100°C it begins to condense. That is, the molecules lose some of their kinetic energy and move more slowly (giving out heat)
There is an electrostatic attraction between the slight negative force on the oxgen atom (due to the attraction of electrons in the covalent bond to itself) and the slight positive charge on the hydrogen atom (due to the attraction of electrons in the bond away from it by the oxygen atom). This attraction forms the bond. When water loses even more kinetic energy and drops in temperature to 0°C it will start to solidify, separate crystals of freezing water, called frazil, grow and interlace until the whole body of water is one solid mass. It therefore solidifies into an aggregate of many crystals. The rate of cooling affects the numbers of these crystals. Hydrogen bonds form between each water molecule and the individual molecules barely move atall. They just vibrate in their
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