Why is water wet?

Answer 1

it isn't always wet you see, why don't ducks get wet? they swim in water.
water is went because of the chemicals on our body, they are like sponge and catch water rather than let it go. the reason our body is like that is because somewhere in our evolution we lived in a dry place, so our body found a way to cool it self by producing sweat. ducks don't need to sweat because they live in water. if our body didn't aloe water to stick to it, living in hot places would be hard for humans. some animals don't get wet at all, there is this bird which i don't know the name for it, but it actually dives into the river to catch its fish and comes back out without a single drop of water on it. in fact when its in the water, the oil on its feathers are so strong that it forms a silver line around it. of course this bird lives in a very cold place and since it has to go into the water to eat, it will need some way to avoid its body temperature from decreasing too much.

Answer 2

By wet i would guess you mean in a liquid state at room temperature?

This is caused by a unique property of the molecules where the two hydrogen atoms are at an angle of 105 degrees across the oxygen atom. This produces a polar molecule that is molecularly "sticky" and adheres readily to other water molecules causing them to cluster into a liquid at room temperature.

Answer 3

Wow, Astronomy and Space sure is a catchall category!

But anyways, water is not wet. Water makes things wet. Something is wet when there is residual water on it's surface, i.e. when there is water on your hand after you put it under the tap, you can say that your hand is wet. But since there was no residual water on the water that ran onto your hand, the water was not wet; it was just water.

A different, but related, thing is that although water is not wet, it might be said that "water feels wet."
This is because your nervous system is detecting a change in the physical environment around your fingers (i.e. temperature, vibrations, currents, resistance, etc.) and interpreting that as 'exposure to water' based on previous experience. So, water feels like water, which as we all know will make your hand wet. The short version is to simply say 'water is wet', even though it isn't an accurate description of the situation.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

hydrogen bonds. in a water molecule there are two hydrogen atoms, these atoms attach to the oxygen, but they also have a little bit of an extra bond.. a stickiness so to speak so that water tends to stick to most things. i don't think too many other liquids do this. this is also why you can fill your cup up to past the top of the glass and it is also why snowflakes have 6 sides.

Answer 5

Cirric has it--it's the intermollecular forces that make water wet things. Water is polar (the oxygens grab the electrons a little tighter, so that end of the molecule is a little bit negative, so you have an electric dipole moment), so you have dipole/dipole interactions between water molecules and anything else that is polar.

Not all liquids are wet. Mercury does not wet things. It beads up. Water does not wet non-polar stuff. So if you wax your car, the water will bead up rather than wetting it.

Edit Roundthread--you're agreeing with me, aren't you. Mercury does NOT wet things.

Answer 6

BTW, he didn't ask why ice is wet, or why steam is wet... he asked why WATER, the liquid form (since the other two forms have different names) is wet... dur.
Answering the questions... I have no idea. The chemicals, nerve ending in our skin? I'm not sure.

Answer 7

Hi. Liquid water has an affinity to many substances. Not wax or similar substances. This id due to molecular attraction.

Answer 8

This is exactly the same question that a 3 year old child of one of my friends asked. She was amazed at how the 3 year old could ask a question like that so that she answered the child:

"let us ask your dad when he arrives!"

Answer 9

water has the ability to pass through very minute holes due to which it can pass through every thing having holes and cause it to become wet.

Answer 10

Cos u would never spot it if it was dried out? being wet makes it easier to see he he