DOES WATER HAVE UNIQUE THERMAL PROPERTIES?

Water absorbs or releases more heat than many substances for each degree of temperature increase or decrease. Because of this, it is widely used for cooling and for transferring heat in thermal and chemical processes. Differences in temperature between lakes and rivers and the surrounding air may have a variety of effects.

For example, local fog or mist is likely to occur if a lake cools the surrounding air enough to cause saturation; consequently, small water droplets are suspended in the air. Large bodies of water, such as the oceans or the Great Lakes, have a profound influence on climate. They are the world's great heat reservoirs and heat exchangers and the source of much of the moisture that falls as rain and snow over adjacent land masses. When water is colder than the air, precipitation is curbed, winds are reduced, and fog banks are formed.

Water with its unsual thermal ablility also plays a vital role in human biology. With a high specific heat, or heat capacity. Heat capacity, you should remember, is the amount of heat or the number of calories required to raise the temperature of one gram of that substance by one degree Celsius. Water's high heat capacity means that is can absorb or lose a relatively large amount of heat without undergoing a large change in temperature.

Since many biological functions will not take place outside a narrow range of temperatures, water's ability to absorb and lose heat without a large temperature change provides an organism with a protection against the ill effects of a large external temperature change. Another way to say this is that large amount of water in our bodies stabilizes the temperature of our bodies.

Among all the substances on Earth, water remains one of the most unique with its properties. Such properties as thermal heating, allow water to play a vital role in chemical reactions, production of thousands of needed products, help regulate our environment and play a phenomenal role in our human biology.