Water: the Strangest Liquid

4:56

Water is most unusual. We might even call it mysterious. Since its properties really deviate a lot from what we call normal liquid.

6:00

Water becomes heaviest at 4 degrees.

6:51

If ice had been heavier than liquid water, the cold ocean floors of the planet would be covered with endless ice and would never have enabled life on Earth.

7:15

Also, the density maximum allows a lot of circulation of water in the ocean, bringing nutritions from the surface down into the ocean.

8:05

Because the Gulf Stream moves hot water up from the Caribbean up to Europe. And if water would have been like a normal liquid, all that water would have cooled down way before it came to Europe.

8:41

Water has a very high surface tension, much higher than nearly all other liquids. And that particular property actually makes the spiders to be able to walk on water.

9:30

Another property that is directly related to surface tension is what we call capillary forces.

12:12

One particular experiment was conducted in the 19th century. It shows how electricity and charging water can generate what's called the water bridge.

13:52

If you look at snowflakes in the winter, beside the fact that they're really beautiful, everyone is unique. But all of them have six arms. And you have to dig deep into the molecular structure to understand that. There is a six-fold symmetry in the crystal structure that gives these six arms on the snowflakes as well. But it's not only unique, it's all symmetric.

15:08

Another strange property that we normally don't reflect over is the fact that we can travel really fast, without wheels, on the surface of solid water.

16:41

And what we found is that there are actually two types of water molecules at the surface.

18:30

The scientific calculations show that Neptune and Uranus contain water in one of the most peculiar forms. Superionic water is a kind of crystalline ice squeezed under millions of bars of pressure, which conducts electricity.

19:51

What makes the magic in water is how the molecules are connected. It's a complex structure which gives rise to a new type of bonding, which is mediated by the hydrogen in the water.

23:08

Water can exist as two different liquids, with structures that would link water molecules to each other in different ways.

23:24

Usually, in an atomic system, a liquid, each atom is surrounded by 12 other atoms in a liquid state. In water, the water molecule is surrounded by only four others.

24:26

The hydrogen bonds make it possible for water molecules to bind to each other in two different ways. A spacious version called low density and a tighter connection called high density.