Explain the compound water, Biology

Assignment Help:

Explain the compound water?

Water :  Water is the most important compound in living cells, making up most of the bulk of living organisms. Our own bodies contain 40% - 60% water. We can survive without food longer than we can without water. Water has several unique properties that make it important to living organisms:

(1) Water is a good solvent. More substances dissolve in water than in any other liquid. Because of its polar nature, water is able to break up ionic compounds into their component ions, freeing them to react with other substances.

(2) Because it is a polar molecule, water is both cohesive and adhesive, which results in capillarity, the ability to move through small orifices or fine pores against the force of gravity and other forces.

(3) The heat of vaporization of water is high; that is, water takes up large quantities of heat when it evaporates, making it a good evaporative coolant. Both plants and animals use water evaporation from surface cells for cooling.

(4) Water has a high specific heat, meaning that it requires a large amount of heat to change its temperature. Since living organisms are made up mostly of water, they gain and lose heat slowly. Water is able to absorb heat from chemical reactions in the organisms.

(5) Water has a high thermal conductivity, or heat conduction, which helps to keep parts of the organism from overheating.

(6) Because of its cohesion, water has a high boiling point. The significance of this is that water does not readily change from a liquid to a gas. In fact, a relatively large quantity of heat is required to change water from a liquid state into gaseous steam.

 


Related Discussions:- Explain the compound water

How can we increase of total peripheral resistance, How can we increase of ...

How can we increase of total peripheral resistance?   A.  A decrease in the diameter of every arteriole.   B.  An increase of sympathetic discharge to all the smooth muscles

Electrophoresis gel to load 60, Assume your tilapia fish muscle homogenate ...

Assume your tilapia fish muscle homogenate has a protein concentration of 5769 ?g/ml. You take 32.5 ?l of this fish homogenate, mix it with 12.5 ?l sample buffer and 5 ?l reducing

Calculation of maximum crop yield percent, Calculation of Maximum Crop Yiel...

Calculation of Maximum Crop Yield Percent It was pointed out previously that 1 Baule of any growth factor is equal in effect on growth to the effect of 1 Baule of any other fa

Determine the term - neuropsychologists and neurologists, Determine the ter...

Determine the term - Neuropsychologists and neurologists Neuropsychologists and neurologists studying behaviour have been greatly concerned with localisation of function in the

Basic physical concepts of plant water relation, Basic Physical Concepts of...

Basic Physical Concepts of Plant Water Relation The main idea of this section is to explain the concept of chemical potential of water or water potential and the effect of var

Explain arthritis, Explain Arthritis Arthritis - Oral therapy with doxy...

Explain Arthritis Arthritis - Oral therapy with doxycycline or amoxicillin for 28 days is usually effective for treatment of Lyme arthritis. Patients who have not responded to

Watson - crick model how many polynucleotide chains, Q. As per the Watson -...

Q. As per the Watson - Crick Model how many polynucleotide chains does a DNA molecule have? The DNA molecule is formed by two polynucleotide chains bound in antiparallel mode (

Pullorum disease (bacillary white diarrhea), P u l l orum disease (baci...

P u l l orum disease (bacillary white diarrhea) This disease is caused by poultry-adapted strain of Salmonella genus- Salmonella Pullorum and considered an important hatc

Organ level -level of body organization, Organ level -Level of body organiz...

Organ level -Level of body organization When organs work together to perform a specific function we have the highest level of body organization i.e. the organ system level of bo

Excretory organs, Normal 0 false false false EN-IN X-...

Normal 0 false false false EN-IN X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd