Duck and Water Molecules ~ A Science Summary

Water Molecules

     Water is not as simple as it sounds. Have you ever spent a hot day working in the sun? If you have you know your body requires water, and that water rehydrates you and makes you feel energized.

     Water is made up of a bunch of molecules. The molecules contain hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms linked together. Breaking down these water molecules is a process called electrolysis. Electrolysis is the use of electricity to break a molecule down into smaller units.

     Water molecules also like to bond together this is called hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonding is when molecules stick together and become a big chain like this picture.

When exposed to surface tension these hydrogen atoms break apart. Hydrogen bonding occurs when these molecules become so strongly stuck together that even when cohesion occurs (Cohesion is the phenomenon that occurs when individual molecules are so strongly attracted to each other that they tend to stay together)  they stick together. It’s almost like two plastic balls melting together. When they do you can’t break them apart can you? No, because they are stuck and no matter how much pressure you use to try to pull them apart they aren’t going to separate.

     Water is not as simple as it sounds (as you can tell). A simple water molecule might look like this:

The big red circle in the center is called the oxygen atom, the two smaller white circles are called hydrogen atoms, and lastly the sticks that connect the smaller circles to the larger one are called chemical bonds.

     Water is a much more complicated process that just hydrogen bonding and electrolysis. There is a lot more to learn about this subject and I will learn more about it in following modules.
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This was an assignment on water molecules in science and was written by Duck. It was a designed to be a summary about what she learned on our water molecule topic - Oct 18. 2011