Water in our life

Water

• To draw together various items of chemistry that reveal the uniqueness of water for metabolic processes.
• To consider the properties of water vapour and steam.
• To briefly consider the uses of ice.
Diagnostic test:

Try this short test. If you score more than 80 % you can use the chapter as a revision of your knowledge. If you score less than 80 % you probably need to work through the text and test yourself again at the end using the same test. If you still score less than 80 % then come back to the chapter after a few days and read again.
1. What is the chemical formula for water?
2. Complete and balance this equation: 2H2 +O2 -----------»
3. Complete this word equation: solute + solvent -----------»
4. Water forms two ions. What are they?
5. The process that allows only a solvent like water to pass through a semi-permeable membrane is called what?
6. The process that allows water and small molecules and ions to pass through a membrane is called what?
5. Soaps and detergents have something special about their molecules. What is it?
8. Water is a small molecule and would be expected to boil at a low temperature. What makes it boil at the high temperature of 100 °C?
Lake a look :
‘My battle with the bottle’ was the headline in a newspaper.1 The page contained a long article relating the problems that actor Anthony Andrews had from drinking too much water to keep his vocal cords lubricated. It almost killed him. Water is probably the most important chemical in the universe and equally important in our body and its thousands of metabolic processes.
The solubility of drugs and medicines in either water or fats plays an important part in administering the active components to the sites where they are needed. Water solubility is very important when drugs are taken orally as they usually have to dissolve in gastric fluids before being taken up and transported to the parts of the body where they are needed, for example soluble aspirin. Some drugs, when they reach the site, dissolve in the fluids of the cells and are used by the cells for treatment of the ailment.