Question

What three properties of water make it so vital for sustaining life? Explain them.

Short answer

Question: Name and explain three properties of water that make it essential for sustaining life. Answer: The three properties of water that make it essential for sustaining life are: 1. Polarity and hydrogen bonding: Due to its polarity, water forms hydrogen bonds, making it resistant to temperature changes. This property helps in maintaining a stable environment for living organisms. 2. Cohesion and adhesion: Cohesion allows water molecules to stick together and facilitates nutrient transport in plants. Adhesion enables water to stick to surfaces, allowing capillary action and the transport of nutrients and waste throughout an organism's body. 3. Universal solvent: Water can dissolve a wide range of substances, which is vital for life as it allows various chemical reactions to occur within living organisms, facilitating the transport of nutrients and waste and enabling essential biochemical reactions.

Step-by-step solution

Property 1: Polarity and Hydrogen Bonding

Water is a polar molecule, meaning it has a partially positive charge on one end (the hydrogen atoms) and a partially negative charge on the other end (the oxygen atom). Due to this polarity, water molecules form hydrogen bonds with each other, where the partially positive hydrogen atom of one water molecule is attracted to the partially negative oxygen atom of another water molecule. This hydrogen bonding makes water a unique substance with a high boiling point, high specific heat, and high heat of vaporization, making it resistant to temperature changes. This means that water can moderate the temperature in the environment, which helps maintain a stable environment for living organisms.

Property 2: Cohesion and Adhesion

Cohesion is the phenomenon where water molecules stick together due to hydrogen bonding. This property allows water to form droplets and helps to pull water molecules up through the xylem in plants, providing them with necessary nutrients. Adhesion is the ability of water to stick to other surfaces, such as the walls of xylem in plants or the surfaces of cells in our bodies. This property allows capillary action, where water moves through narrow spaces against the force of gravity, facilitating the transport of nutrients and waste throughout an organism's body.

Property 3: Universal Solvent

Water is often called the universal solvent because it can dissolve a wide range of substances, including salts, sugars, acids, alkalis, and gases. This property is vital for life because it allows various chemical reactions to occur within a living organism. For example, the dissolved nutrients in water are transported to cells, and waste products are removed from the cells. Additionally, water facilitates many essential biochemical reactions by dissolving and transporting necessary molecules and ions.