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

Explain pennate diatomsrole in diatoms, Explain Pennate diatomsrole in diat...

Explain Pennate diatomsrole in diatoms? Pennate diatoms have bilateral symmetry, which presents side-by-side mirror images if divided down the middle or centerline, as seen

What will occur to the levels above of secondary consumers, In the short te...

In the short term what will occur to the levels above and below a population of secondary consumers of a numeric pyramid if a large number of individuals from this population dies?

Chromosomes, Chromosomes Karl Nageli and Hofmeister observed chr...

Chromosomes Karl Nageli and Hofmeister observed chromosomes in pollen mother cells of Tradescantia. Chromosome name proposed by Waldeyer. During cell division,

Explain adverse effects of foscarnet, Explain Adverse Effects of foscarnet ...

Explain Adverse Effects of foscarnet  Renal dysfunction often develops during treatment with foscarnet and is usually reversible, but renal failure requiring dialy sis may occu

Tautomeric shifts, The original DNA sequence when ,transcribed and translat...

The original DNA sequence when ,transcribed and translated would yield five successive valine residues. But the altered sequence would correspondingly read one aspartate and four s

Microbiology of air, Ask question #i need the complete table having the nam...

Ask question #i need the complete table having the names of the diseases their causative agents and their control,caused by air-borne pathogens?

Explain the functional properties of proteins, Functional properties of pro...

Functional properties of proteins These are those physico-chemical properties that enable the proteins to contribute to the desirable characteristics of the food Potential f

Adp-atp system of energy exchange, ADP-ATP system  of energy  exchange : ...

ADP-ATP system  of energy  exchange : In 1929 Lohmann, Fiske and  subbarow  published  their  discovery  that the energy  exchanges  compounds in all biological  systems  are t

Explain the localized aggressive periodontitis, Explain the Localized Aggre...

Explain the Localized Aggressive Periodontitis Localized Aggressive Periodontitis: It has been in literature that transmission of peridontopathic microorganisms from periodon

Facilitation model - models of succession, Facilitation Model - Models of S...

Facilitation Model - Models of Succession This is considered as the classical model of succession. It is based on the assumption that species of a previous stage are replaced

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