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

Define nutritional management of eating disorders, Define Nutritional Manag...

Define Nutritional Management of Eating Disorders? In the last unit, we focused on weight management. It is important to understand that the problems associated with too much d

What is the choice of a prophylactic agent, Choice of a prophylactic agent ...

Choice of a prophylactic agent An effective prophylactic regimen should be directed against the most likely infecting organisms, but need not eradicate every potential pathogen

What are the flat bones and the long bones, Q. What are the flat bones and ...

Q. What are the flat bones and the long bones? The main bones of the body may be classified as long or flat bones there are bones not classified into these categories. Instance

biodegrade xenobiotic compounds , Xenobiotic compounds are man-made chemi...

Xenobiotic compounds are man-made chemicals that are present in the environment at unnaturally high concentrations. The xenobiotic compounds are either not produced naturally, o

Nervous system and sense organs, Nervous System and Sense Organs The n...

Nervous System and Sense Organs The non-chordates also perform a variety of activities such as feeding, digestion, locomotion etc. For this aim, they have corresponding organs

What is the deplasmolysis of plant cells, Q. What is the deplasmolysis of p...

Q. What is the deplasmolysis of plant cells? The plant cell when placed under hypertonic medium loses a great quantity of water and its cell membrane detaches from the cell wal

Abdomen - hypertension, The purpose of examining the abdomen should be for ...

The purpose of examining the abdomen should be for detection of renal artery bruit and abnormal kidney masses like kidney tumours and polycystic kidneys. Aortic abdominal aneurysms

Programmes directed towards the common crop plants, Programmes directed tow...

Programmes directed towards the common crop plants These programmes can be directed towards incorporating the following traits among common crop plants. Non-photo

Define the food and nutrition security, Define the Food and Nutrition Secur...

Define the Food and Nutrition Security? In the previous section, we learnt about the trends in production of food grains in the country and their relationship to population gro

Define the physical activity level, Define the Physical activity level? ...

Define the Physical activity level? Physical activity level (PAL) is defined as the total energy required over 24 hours divided by the energy needed for basal metabolism over 2

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