Physical & Chemical Properties of Water

Topic Content:

Physical Properties of Water:

• Pure water is a clear, colourless, tasteless, and odourless liquid.
• It boils at 100°C and freezes at 0°C.
• It is neutral to litmus.
• It has a maximum densityDensity is the measurement of how tightly a material is packed together i.e. how closely the particles are packed in the material. The tighter the material is packed the more its... More of 1.00 g cm^-3 at 4°C.

Unique Physical Properties of Water:

1. High melting and boiling point.

2. High surface tension.

3. Formation of large aggregates as in ice crystals.

4. Ice floats on water because it is less dense than water.

5. The existence of hydrogen bonds in ice gives rise to an open lattice structure.

6. Water is a liquid, unlike other small molecules like methane (CH₄ ) and Ammonia (NH₃ ) which are gases at room temperatureIf something is at room temperature, its temperature is neither hot nor cold. It is a range of air temperatures that most people prefer for indoor settings, usually considered to be... More.

7. Water molecules have a polar arrangement of oxygen and hydrogen atoms—one side (hydrogen) has a positive electrical charge and the other side (oxygen) has a negative charge. This allows the water molecule to become attracted to many other different types of molecules.

8 All these properties are due to the existence of hydrogen bonds between water molecules.

Chemical Properties of Water:

1. Reaction with Metals:

Water reacts with highly reactive and fairly reactive metals under different