Third Class: Water -- Cohesion vs. Adhesion

In class three we looked at the properties of water: cohesion and adhesion.

Cohesion:
         Cohesion is the ability that water has to "climb" up objects like straws.  This is possible because of the way the molecules bond together they will appear to climb up the sides of glasses or straws.  The water can only go to a certain point before having to stop because it cannot support any more molecules on top.
Adhesion:
         Adhesion is the ability that water has to hold together and form a bubble shape with high surface tension.  In the lab we would drop as many droplets of water onto a penny before the surface tension would grow to great and the water would spill off the penny.  The bonds within the water lets it retain it's shape on top of the penny.
          These properties of water allow trees to get water to their leaves, let water striders run across water, and water to form symmetrical droplets in nature.