What Would The World Be Like If Water Were Denser As A Solid Than As A Liquid - Essay Example

Water exists in three states: liquid, solid, and invisible vapour. Water posses' unusual and exceptional physical properties. These unique properties are vital for survival of all living things and one of utmost importance is the density of water and ice. Most substances are denser in the solid state than the liquid state. Unlike most materials that shrink on solidifies water expands as it freezes and become less dense in its solid state than in its liquid state, so that ice floats instead of sinking.

This property permits life to develop in polar and sub Polar Regions where ice floats and allows life to continue living below the surface. Thus arises an interesting question: If ice were heavier than water, it would sink, and more ice would form on top of it. As a result, all life in the waters would be trapped in the ice in the many areas of the world where it gets cold enough to freeze water Earth's waters are filled with life. The coexistence of the solid, liquid, and gaseous phases of water is vital to existence of life on Earth.

If ice were denser than liquid water, it would sink. Most of the water on the planet is in the form of ice, would freeze solid from top to bottom including oceans, lakes and rivers and would immediately sink. Sun's rays could not penetrate into the depths of ocean bed and therefore unable to melt the frozen ice. The warm surface layer would be less dense than the solid frozen layer below; there would be no significant convection to mix the oceans. The coldest water would remain near the surface, and the necessary warming phenomenon could not occur in summer.

About 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water. Oceans and seas act as heat reservoirs helps to moderate our global climate. It wouldn't take long until most of the earth's water was frozen with only a thin layer of melt water on top that would mean a drastically different climate on earth. The temperature of the entire earth would decrease; the animal and plant life would reduce. The density of ice is less than the density of water due to the characteristics of hydrogen bonding in liquid and solid water.

The water molecule forms an angle, with hydrogen atoms at the tips and oxygen at the vertex. Since oxygen has higher electro negativity than hydrogen, the side of the molecule with the oxygen atom has a partial Page 3Negative charge. The water molecules are attracted to each other due to opposite attraction. This attraction is known as hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonding also gives water an unusual behavior when freezing. Water expands as it freezes and molecules are more distant from one another in ice than they are in the liquid water.

Therefore, ice is not as dense as liquid water at standard conditions Fresh water has its greatest density under normal atmospheric pressure at 4 C, then becoming less dense as it freezes or heats up. As a stable, polar molecule prevalent in the atmosphere, it plays an important role as a greenhouse gas absorbing infrared radiation, without which, Earth's average surface temperature would be -18 C. Water is the most resourceful of our natural resources. It uniquely structured to provide the heat source for the global weather engine,