Cohesion Of Water Essay

There are several characteristics that water possesses that are essential to life on Earth. Four of them are cohesion and adhesion, ability to moderate temperature, expansion upon freezing, and versatility as a solvent. The first part, cohesion, is the attraction between molecules of the same kind. Water molecules have strong cohesive behavior because they have the ability to form hydrogen bonds with each other. Cohesive behavior is what is responsible for surface tension, which is when stress or tension is placed upon a liquid’s surface and it resists rupture. This occurs because water molecules on the surface will form hydrogen bonds with their neighbors, the same as the other water molecules further within the liquid. The molecules on the surface however, since the are exposed to the air on one side will have fewer neighboring water molecules available to bond with. Therefore, they will form stronger bonds with the neighbors that are available. Surface tension is responsible for allowing insects to walk across the top of water and mate and feed

Cohesion of water is when water sticks to itself, adhesion of water is when water molecules stick to different molecules under particular circumstances. Adhesion itself is the attraction of molecules of one kind to a different one. This type of attraction can be relatively strong for water, particularly when there are positive and negative charges present. A unique capability of water is it can “climb” up through thin tubes called capillary tubes when they are placed in a beaker of water. The capillary action, which is the upward motion against gravity, is possible because of cohesive and adhesive behavior. This capability occurs during the ascent of sap, an essential process for plant life. The action depends on the interactions between water molecules, which is cohesion, and the attraction between water molecules and the glass walls of the tube, which is