Why does water stay water and not turn back into hydrogen and oxygen?
The H2O molecule is more stable than the H2 and O2 molecules it comes from (or whatever your chemical source is). Energy is released when 2 hydrogens and an oxygen become water, and energy must be invested to separate them into respective elements, such as by running electricity through the water. electrolysis of water http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysi… Without the electricity, water still dissociates into an H ion and an OH ion, but only in small amounts and continually turning back into water. This is related to the pH of water being 7, because the concentration of the H ions that are broken out of their molecule is 10^-7 mol/L. edit- Amy Z: Hydrogen bonding giver water a higher boiling point by preventing the polar molecules from separating; it is not related to the molecule’s individual stability.
Water consists of a polar molecule. Since oxygen has a higher electronegativity than hydrogen, water is a polar molecule. It has two electromagnetic poles because of its two hydrogens, and is thus a dipole. The interactions between the different dipoles of each molecule cause a net attraction force. Another very important force that causes the water molecules to stick to one another is the hydrogen bond. Water also sticks to itself because of it’s polarity. Basically, the reason that water stays together is because of the Hydrogen Bonding, which are the bonds between the adjacent hydrogen atoms.
well i m not real sure of this , but water does not stay water, water evaporates back in to the atmosphere and becomes hydrogen and oxygen again. in the form of clouds, try sitting a bowl of water in the sun for a few days with a plastic tent over it, you’ll see droplets form on the plastic, if it wasn’t for the plastic this vapor would return to the atmosphere and form clouds, evaporation causes this.
