WAT??

Pizza is the superior food.

Water has the quality of making things feel wet. Water is not wet.

If you are swimming completely submerged, do you feel wet??

I feel nothing, so....

That is just the abyss, ignore it, you'll be fine!

Why is water the only material that expands when it gets cold?

Consider: If it didn't

The oceans would have frozen from the bottom up. Life might not exist.

Is it the only liquid with this behaviour?

I'd be surprised. SO2? Methane? What are the features of H2O that makes it expand when it freezes? How much does its volume increase? Can you predict that amount, is it down to hydrogen bounding? (Which presumably occurs in other molecules with hydrogen)

Sometimes when I drink water and jump around I hear it slosh and it makes me laugh

@jason4747
I believe it has to do with the intermolecular bonds between water molecules. Water molecules have hydrogen bonds. In the liquid phase, the intermolecular forces between water molecules are weaker than in the solid phase. As a result, ice has rigid intermolecular bonds between the molecules, which gives them a hexagonal shape. Just a guess. I'd love to hear the actual answer.

Liquids that expand when becoming solid: silicon, silicon dioxide, gallium, germanium, antimony, bismuth, plutonium and also chemical compounds that form spacious crystal lattices with tetrahedral coordination. Googled it.

The bond angle of the H-O-H gives the angled shape of the 3 atoms. The hydrogen bonds between the O and the H's from surrounding angle-shaped H2O's gives it a 3 dimensional crystalline shape. When viewed on the side of a 2D object like the side of a glass, you get the hex thing. Liquid has more kinetic energy than the solid form. This overcomes the hydrogen bonding and allows molecules to actually pass closer to each other than in the ice form -- and then the liquid molecules keep moving.

To give a slightly clearer answer, water is not the only material which is more dense as a liquid than a solid, but they are certainly less common.

Excellent. Thanks for the rest of the story. Great facts.

Wet is when water is on something. Can water be on itself?

Fortunately I have a 6 year old neighbour who isn't burdened by all the crap adults pick up that makes them overthink issues and tie themselves up in knots.

"Is water wet?", I asked

"Yes, because it's water", she replied.

I don't know about you, but I'm convinced :).

and yet, when you put your hand in a plastic baggie and touch cold water in a pot, it still feels wet! I think that wetness is a state of mind.

adjective, wetter, wettest.
1.
moistened, covered, or soaked with water or some other liquid:
wet hands.
2.
in a liquid form or state:
wet paint.
3.
characterized by the presence or use of water or other liquid.

So yes, water is wet, it's in a liquid state.

But what about a water molecule in the smallest possible molecular level, to where it's no longer covered or surrounded by water?

Wet : Water -as- Illuminated : Light

You wouldn't say a photon of light is illuminated, but when that photon of light strikes an object, the object is illuminated. Same with that single molecule of water.

@Wyatt: A single molecule has no state of matter...therefore a single H2O molecule is not water

It depends on your definition of "wet".

@VashtaNeurotic. A single molecule of H2O is water. It can be in solid, liquid or gaseous form but it is water, nonetheless.

That's actually just incorrect....A single molecule of H2O is H2O, the names water, ice and water vapor/steam all refer to the specific state of liquid, solid and gaseous states. Given that the state of matter is literally determined by the interaction of a collection of molecules, a single molecule can not have a state of matter.

It's sort of how a single brick does not make a wall...

Water is defined in the liquid state, Egathetos

When I hit you with an ice ball and you cry, does that count as making you wet?

I can't tell if you need to smoke more or less.

Water is wet, simple as that.

It is 4-20.

It is the polar nature of water that makes it align such that in crystalline form it takes more space than in liquid form. More space means less density thus it expands. For the wetness felt in a plastic bag, that it due to persipiration from the hand thus your hand becomes 'wet' but not from the pot of water.

Capt Brad is a pro diplomacy player and a chemist. I couldnt have said it more beautifully.

@Brad, my hand doesn't sweat in a plastic bag when I partially submerge it in cold water. The "wet" feeling is the transfer of heat from my fingers to the water without the pressure I might feel if I pressed my finger against a cold window. My brain has been taught to associate such a heat loss as "wetness".

and how come no one has said, "that's what she said" yet?

Because webdip is a collection of rational and mature human beings.

So we are lying now eh? @ Vashta

Wait I am in your debt I can't disagree with you

Hauta we know your brain is warped

@VashtaNeurotic
I agree for the most part. The phase of a substance depends upon the relationships that the molecules of that substance have. If there is only one molecule, then it does not really have a phase, since it cannot interact with other molecules. Therefore, a single molecule of water is not wet, since wetness requires liquid phase.

Wet is the english term that we use to describe the interaction of water and non water