The Amazing Properties Of Water

In any of its three phases… liquid, solid or gas, the properties of water are truly amazing.

Water is used in more ways and to perform more functions than any other substance on earth.

Think of just some of the more common ways you put the properties of water to work. You drink it for refreshment and to sustain your life. You also freeze it into its solid state... ice, and put that in your drink to keep it cold or wrap the ice in a towel to put on your black eye or swollen knee to bring down the swelling.

You bath or shower in it because it is the only liquid that leaves you refreshed and truly clean feeling. Your body craves it.

You use it to soften the dirt when you need to dig in your garden and you use it again to water and nourish the plants in that same garden.

You boil it in order to sterilize objects or to boil food. You also use the gas form… steam (or vapor) to cook foods as well. Steam, or the higher elevated form of gas… vapor, is also widely used in mechanics to drive many different machines.

These are just a very few common areas that the amazing chemical of water allows us to use it in. All natural and non-polluting. read more on the properties of water here.

There is one more phase that is less known and that we would not see in every day life, but is interesting to know about anyway. That is the phase known as 'supercritical fluid'. The only time this phase would be reached is under extreme pressure and extreme temperature.

At supercritical fluid state water exhibits the characteristics of both liquid and gas at the same time. I find this hard to imagine but one place this can happen if all elements are at the 'critical' point is very deep in the ocean (usually below a mile and half in depth) and where volcanic plumes heat the water to super heated temperatures (often over 350 degrees Celsius).