Chemical Ménage a Trois

Water is always made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. These atoms are involved in a polar-covalent triste that gives water unique properties. Water is the only chemical that exists naturally on Earth as a solid, liquid, and gas. Earth also happens to be the only planet with an abundance of water present in all three forms.

Below 32°F (0°C), this water is solid and called ice. It cools our drinks in warm weather and makes roads slick in the winter. The solid form of water is less dense than its liquid form, an anomaly in the natural world due to hydrogen bonding. The hydrogens and oxygens arrange in a particular manner that causes water molecules to move farther apart when they freeze.

While walking home from campus one day, I saw a man shoveling snow. He was having great difficulty with all the ice and told me, “It’s like shoveling rocks.” I smiled and agreed with him. A few steps later, I began thinking about water, its different phases, and how little we really think about them.

Ice, the solid phase of water, arranges in an orderly, crystalline pattern. It is classified in chemistry as a molecular crystal. Another example of a crystal is a diamond. In a way, ice is a rock, so the shoveler I encountered was right.

Snowflakes are crystals too, but since they are tiny and not necessarily packed together, we don’t think of these small particles as rock. They are really crystalline powder, similar to sand. We just aren’t used to seeing sand in liquid and gas form. Perhaps seeing water in all of its three forms all around us, we forget that ice is a crystal. The liquid and gas forms of water delude us into forgetting the hardness of ice.

Between 32°F and 212°F (0°C and 100°C), this substance is liquid and commonly called water. Approximately two-thirds of the Earth is covered in liquid water. We use liquid water to shower, hydrate our bodies, wash our clothes, and cool down on hot summer days. Entire parks are constructed to play and enjoy water in its liquid form. People fight over water rights. We fill flexible rubber containers and hurl them at others for fun. We spend afternoons floating on or in it in the summer. Liquid water coheres to form round water droplets. It takes the shape of whatever container it is in – a glass, a vase, or the floor’s surface it is spilled on. Its high surface tension allows bugs to literally walk on water.

Above 212°F, this substance is gaseous and called steam or water vapor. It can remove wrinkles from clothing and deep clean carpets.

Water is the universal solvent. Removing everything from Crayola Markers on a 3-year-old’s face to the flour and sugar on a baker’s hands. It can extract heat from a burn caused by a hot pan or scald the skin. Inhaling water vapor can relieve a stuffy head, while breathing in liquid water causes drowning. It is both the life-giver and life-taker.

People travel from all over to see water fall from the cliffs in Niagara, but run from the waves caused by a hurricane or a tsunami. Falling water is welcomed by a cornfield but cursed by a family watching the swelling river come closer and closer to their home. We enjoy the quiet of snowfall but fear an avalanche of snow on a mountain.

Water is versatile, beautiful, and dangerous. All because two hydrogens and one oxygen decided it was best to have a ménage a Trois.