Comment on Is water an acid or a base?
NielsBohron@lemmy.world 4 weeks agoThat’s why the meme works. It’s not because water autoionizes; it’s because water is amphoteric, meaning it can act as either a Brønsted-Lowry acid or BL base depending on what what it’s reacting with. Put water with ammonia, and water acts as an acid. Put water with acetic acid, and it acts as a base
Source: I teach college chemistry
AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 4 weeks ago
Water is so cool. I like how the hydrophobic effects drives protein folding
TheOakTree@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
I once brought up in a family dinner how incredible and strange water is, and how we don’t really think about it.
It appears naturally in all three phases, expands when frozen, has a high surface tension, has a high specific heat, and can behave as a mild base or acid. Oh, and all the living stuff has water in it.
Nobody really understood what I meant except my sister.
JATtho@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Do you know about ortho/para-H~2~O? It only gets weirder.
TheOakTree@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Neat, I will be saving this and reading it when I’m less busy… maybe I’ll get back to you on it.
SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 4 weeks ago
If it makes you feel any better, I totally get it.
I’ve thought many times how different the universe would be (would complex life on earth even work the same way???) if frozen water became more dense and sank like most frozen substances.