1. Properties of Water
What are some characteristics that make you different from everybody else? Maybe you can play basketball really well, or have a freckle on the tip of your elbow, or maybe you can draw better than anybody else you know.
It may seem strange, but each substance in the world has special characteristics that make it different from every other substance. Just like you, they have characteristics, or properties, that make them unique. Believe it or not, water has some of the most unique properties of all!

2. POLARITY
Definition:
when one molecule has opposite charges on each of its ends (one end is slightly positive, the other end is slightly negative).
Example:
Water (H2O) is a polar molecule because its hydrogen end is slightly positive and its oxygen end is slightly negative.

3. ADHESION
Definition:
the ability of water molecules to attract to other substances.
Because water molecules are polar (having one positive end and one negative end) they attract other substances.
Example:
raindrops sticking to a
window or glass
water sticking to
paper towel

4. COHESION
Definition:
the ability of water molecules to attract towards each other.
Because water molecules are polar (having one positive end and one negative end), they attract each other.
Example:
water “dome”
rain drops

5. Cohesion vs. Adhesion

6. SURFACE TENSION Definition:
the force that acts on the particles at the surface of a material
Example:
Water striders (bugs)
painful belly flop

7. CAPILLARY ACTION Definition:
the process that moves water through a narrow porous space
Example:
water moving up a straw
water moving up a plant stem

8. DENSITY Definition: the measure of mass of a substance per unit volume
Example:
ice floating on water

9. Specific Heat Definition: Example:
The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance one degree Celcius
Example:
The specific heat of water is J/g°C, which is higher than any other common substance