My sister just asked "Why is water wet?" What is the answer?

Question

I cannot actually think of a good one!

I mean I understand adhesion, cohesion and surface tension (In study advanced Biology), but how to explain to a 10 year old?

Answer 1

Your sister has the key ingredient to be a thinker in general, and a scientist or engineer in particular -- an intellectual curiosity. Encourage it!

Water is liquid over most of the earth most of the time. Its molecular structure makes it good at forming hydrogen bonds and bipolar bonds with other materials. That's why it's so good at adhesion (sticking to things).

Answer 2

Well a 10 year old girl should be attending school and so will understand if you tell in simple terms that liquids with less surface tension and low viscosity (that includes water, keronsene, alcohol etc.) wet the skin, that is leave a film behind of themselves. Mercury, on the other hand, though a liquid doesn't wet because of the very high surface tension.

Answer 3

The trouble is, this is a more or less a question of semantics. It's like asking "why is salt salty?"

We use such verbs as a conventional device to indicate a number of abstract sensations or experiences, that are in a certain respect, indescribable. This is more a matter of convenience than practicality; in a certain sense, describing water as "wet" is ridiculous, since we cannot use it to draw any meaningful conclusions about "wetness", other than by association.

This is one of the quirks of language, we all use verbs and phrases like this, and we all understand the conventions behind it, so we can usually just gloss over the logical inconsistencies of doing so. This sort of phrasing depends entirely on the fact that everyone has experienced water.

Try asking your sister what properties she is trying to describe, when she says "wet."

Good luck...
~Soylent Yellow

Answer 4

Water is wet because of the unique way in which hydrogen bonding occurs in water. Water sticks to skin (adhesion) and to itself (cohesion, surface tension). Of course, I am guessing that's too complicated.

I might try explaining "wetness" is just how people percieve liquids.

Answer 5

Tough question. A scientific answer is that it has to do with our perception, our concept of language, as well as the physical properties of hydrogen, oxygen, and the water molecule itself, but that doesn't really answer the question.

Water is wet because that is how we define what wet is, the presence of a liquid on another substance. There is really no other reason. Could the 'wetness' of water be talked about if there were no humans to name it? The word "wet" would have no meaning if water and other liquids did not exist, would it? Maybe part of the reason is also that it is foreign to us; we do not live in water. I am not a philosopher, but this seems to be the answer to me, that it is a language issue rather than a scientific one.

It seems to me also, that she is asking a deep question.

Answer 6

Because.... ITS... NOT DRY!

NOW.... Show HER how its not Really WET!

Take a cup and fill it Almost to the TOP with Water.

Sprinkle some PEPER on the top of the water.

Take some Liquid Detergent and put some on the TIP of your Finger.

Now TOUCH... it to the WATER... And see what Happens... to the Peper!

The WATER... Now gets WETTER! [Changed Surface Tension]

Thanks, RR

Answer 7

Good question. It's good that she asks question.

Let's look at what it means by wet: 1) it clings to you in a film. 2)It feels cool.

The reason why it clings to you is because of hydrogen bonding. To put in simple terms, water is made of atoms and these atoms tend to attract one another and other atoms (in this case, your hand should you touch it). That gives you the clingy feeling.

As to why it's cool. Well, that's because heat is transferred from your body to the water. Water is at lower temperature than your body.

Answer 8

Water structure is based on an vibrating Hydrogen Bond to Oxygen. Because the bond in not specifically stable and at ambient temperature it is loosely held together water takes on fluid characteristics. As for the non-technical answer...it is because you were taught that it is wet, had you not been taught you would be calling its fluidity something else.

Answer 9

Why is water wet? Water is wet so that the fish and other ocean, lake and river creatures can move through it with fluent ease. Friction is not your friend when you are trying to move. We need to be able to drink. We need for boats not to sink. We need for our plumbing to work. This is why water is wet.

But, really, why is water wet? Water is wet because our sensations say it is so. We feel wetness. We get out of a pool and we are dripping, uh, you know. We take a shower and we're, um, you know again.

The question of why is water wet cannot be answered with regular science methodology, but can be answered in Zen Physics. Water is wet because this is the nature of water. The nature of rock is to be hard. The nature of grass is to be green. The nature of water is to be wet. To take away from its true nature is to destroy what is and thus water is not water anymore. It may be ice, but it surely is not water. Water begets wetness. Wetness begets slipperiness. Slipperiness begets falling. Falling begets a long and painful hospital stay.

Answer 10

water is wet in feeling becouse it soakes through the skin and touches nerves desined to detect this phenomena !