Who discovered that water is wet?

Answer 1

We live in a world of opposites. Up down. Left right. Hot cold. So we discover water is wet anytime we are dry. Think about fish. Do they know what wet is? Maybe our air is wet to them. I think fish think they are flying. Because they are born and live and die in water, they have know idea what water (wet) is. If they want to go swimming they jump into the air. (?)

Answer 2

Difficult question to answer since water isn't always wet! It depends on the surface it is in contact with - it isn't wet to a duck's back!

Pure water isn't actually very good at wetting surfaces because it has a rather high surface tension (~72 N/m in air at 25degC) which is why pond skater's can walk on its surface film and you need to add surfactant (e.g. soap or detergent) to it to improve its wetting of some surfaces. It's surface tension is due to a number of intermolecular forces such as van der Waals and polar interactions.

The condition of maximum wetting occurs when the contact angle of the liquid to the surface being wetted approaches zero and this depends on the chmical compositions of the liquid and surface, the mechanical structure of the surface and the dynamics of the process - e.g. whether the liquid is advancing or receding.

If you watch rain water falling on a dirty window (e.g. while sat on a bus) you will notice that it tends to form ribbons of liquid that run down the glass with a high, bead-like contact angle at the head of the drops that takes an erratic route down the glass avoiding "dry" areas. The water is taking the easiest route down the glass avoiding the more hydrophobic areas having a thin (possibly one molecule thick - so invisible) layer of oil or similar contamination. Meanwhile the tails of the drops are stretched out to long more wetting tails that have lower contact angles. This is because, once the water has been in contact with the surface it wets the cleaner (hydrated silica) areas and causes the water to stick to the surface.

Wetting is a complex process which is very sensitive to the molecules at the surface.

Silicone oils have a low surface tension which is why they are good in products like WD-40 for wetting and penetrating into small gaps and basically getting everywhere!

So your question should be rephrased as "Who discovered the physical chemistry associated with wetting?" That is a more difficult question to answer but I'd suggest that a good candidate is Irving Langmuir who received the Nobel Prize in 1932 for Chemistry "for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry." but I'm sure that there was earlier work than this.

Answer 3

Everyone discovers it for themselves, animals discovered water was wet before humans came on the scene, though of course they didn't have the human words to call the properties they were aware of 'wet'.

Answer 4

Wet Wet Wet, successful Scottish pop band of the 1980s and 1990s? haha

I think no-body really discovered water as it was already there and part of nature. So in a way nature discovered wetness.

That's a clever question and it's got me and probably most of us stuck on that one. haha

Answer 5

No one; "wetness" is an adverb associated with most liquids, and is a tactile property, known by all humans and most animal species.

Now, to find when the idea of wetness was created in the human mind, that's another story...

Answer 6

It was never discovered as being wet, but named as "wet" for an element containing water.

Answer 7

who's discovered the word WET?

Answer 8

Water isn't wet, an object covered with or saturated in water is wet.
Isnt it? Oh no!
Now I don't know , uuuummmm ask someone else!

Answer 9

Why would finding that water is wet be considered a discovery?

Answer 10

Sponge Bob squarepants