8/100: Water
I like water. I'm a watery-being. We all are. And we live on a watery blue planet.
The smell of the rain is amazing. Warm summer rains are the best; so relaxing and refreshing. Even the plants seem happy and perky after a summer rain.
Nothing is as perfect as drinking some water on a hot day. Especially after coming in from lawnwork or exercise.
It's important for humans to have a high water intake. Recommended is 8+ glasses a day, or 100 ounces. That's a lot of water and you'll be peeing all day long, but it's what helps your body function at its best for a number of reasons.
Water circulates in our blood plasma, in our cerebrospinal fluid, everywhere. In our tears, our saliva, and sweat. Overall, humans are very wet creatures, and it's thanks to water. Dryness sucks! Dry skin, dry mouth, dry nails, skin, and hair, dry air, dry eyes.... We need water to stay nice and wet.
In addition to the above, water is broken down by our bodies into hydrogen, which is utilized in a metabolic hydrogen chain that eventually creates ATP. If I remember anything from biology, it's that ATP is necessary to live! It's energy for our cells. So that's why if you don't drink water, you die. Your cells literally run out of energy and stop functioning.
We're even conceived into water. For nine months, we float around in an amniotic sac. No wonder infants love bathtime so much! It's like being in the womb so it's comforting and familiar.
On a more global scale, water regulates the Earth's climate. Water is very resistant to temperature change due to the way its molecules are, so having so much water in the oceans and in the atmosphere acts as a temperature buffer. That way, there aren't extreme changes in temperature every day and night. Yay for not freezing to death and baking to death!
Along the same vein, it's really cool that ice floats. Water is the only compound whose solid is lighter than its liquid. This makes sense -- if ice sank (weird thought, huh?) then all the oceans would freeze and we would all die of cold. When water freezes, the molecules go from clumpy and dense in liquid form to structured and hexagonal (I think hexagonal) in ice form, spreading the molecules out and therefore making ice less dense.
Water in liquid form is very cohesive and densely packed. Water is so cohesive that even if it's squeezed up a flower stem -- molecule by molecule in single file -- it is still cohesive and sticks together.
Water molecules are neat because they're bent weirdly. This makes them very magnetically attracted to each other in what's known as a hydrogen bond. Yep, it's such a special bond that it has its own name. I forget but it has a lot to do with the polarity of the molecule. It's because of the molecular structure that water is as neat as it is -- resisting temperature change, having a lighter solid than liquid form, being very cohesive, etc.
Water is beautiful to look at! Snowflakes, raindrops, drops of dew, puddles and what they reflect, oceans, lakes, fog, clouds, steam.... all these things are beautiful. The sky and ocean are blue because of water and how the different wavelengths of light are transmitted through all the water particles. Every wavelength of visible white light (aka a rainbow) is scattered and lost, save for blue.
The sound of water is very relaxing. My dad has a water feature he built in his backyard that gurgles and splashes. It's such a lovely sound to fall asleep to. Same goes for water against the roof and window.
We play in water, doing sports or other recreational activities. Vacations are planned around water ofttimes, like going to the beach, boating, and going on a cruise. We relax and clean ourselves in water -- baths, spas, saunas, showers, hot springs, pools, Jacuzzis...
Some people live by water (I do, there's a large pond in my backyard), be it rivers, coastlines, lakes.
Things live IN water -- water supports so many living things like animals, plants, and other wee organisms.
Some people make their livelihood off of water and its related resources. There's a culture who build floating islands woven from reeds, and they just live on them. Talk about living close to the water!
Water is officially really awesome and it makes me happy. So go drink a tall glass of water now. :)
The smell of the rain is amazing. Warm summer rains are the best; so relaxing and refreshing. Even the plants seem happy and perky after a summer rain.
Nothing is as perfect as drinking some water on a hot day. Especially after coming in from lawnwork or exercise.
It's important for humans to have a high water intake. Recommended is 8+ glasses a day, or 100 ounces. That's a lot of water and you'll be peeing all day long, but it's what helps your body function at its best for a number of reasons.
Water circulates in our blood plasma, in our cerebrospinal fluid, everywhere. In our tears, our saliva, and sweat. Overall, humans are very wet creatures, and it's thanks to water. Dryness sucks! Dry skin, dry mouth, dry nails, skin, and hair, dry air, dry eyes.... We need water to stay nice and wet.
In addition to the above, water is broken down by our bodies into hydrogen, which is utilized in a metabolic hydrogen chain that eventually creates ATP. If I remember anything from biology, it's that ATP is necessary to live! It's energy for our cells. So that's why if you don't drink water, you die. Your cells literally run out of energy and stop functioning.
We're even conceived into water. For nine months, we float around in an amniotic sac. No wonder infants love bathtime so much! It's like being in the womb so it's comforting and familiar.
On a more global scale, water regulates the Earth's climate. Water is very resistant to temperature change due to the way its molecules are, so having so much water in the oceans and in the atmosphere acts as a temperature buffer. That way, there aren't extreme changes in temperature every day and night. Yay for not freezing to death and baking to death!
Along the same vein, it's really cool that ice floats. Water is the only compound whose solid is lighter than its liquid. This makes sense -- if ice sank (weird thought, huh?) then all the oceans would freeze and we would all die of cold. When water freezes, the molecules go from clumpy and dense in liquid form to structured and hexagonal (I think hexagonal) in ice form, spreading the molecules out and therefore making ice less dense.
Water in liquid form is very cohesive and densely packed. Water is so cohesive that even if it's squeezed up a flower stem -- molecule by molecule in single file -- it is still cohesive and sticks together.
Water molecules are neat because they're bent weirdly. This makes them very magnetically attracted to each other in what's known as a hydrogen bond. Yep, it's such a special bond that it has its own name. I forget but it has a lot to do with the polarity of the molecule. It's because of the molecular structure that water is as neat as it is -- resisting temperature change, having a lighter solid than liquid form, being very cohesive, etc.
Water is beautiful to look at! Snowflakes, raindrops, drops of dew, puddles and what they reflect, oceans, lakes, fog, clouds, steam.... all these things are beautiful. The sky and ocean are blue because of water and how the different wavelengths of light are transmitted through all the water particles. Every wavelength of visible white light (aka a rainbow) is scattered and lost, save for blue.
The sound of water is very relaxing. My dad has a water feature he built in his backyard that gurgles and splashes. It's such a lovely sound to fall asleep to. Same goes for water against the roof and window.
We play in water, doing sports or other recreational activities. Vacations are planned around water ofttimes, like going to the beach, boating, and going on a cruise. We relax and clean ourselves in water -- baths, spas, saunas, showers, hot springs, pools, Jacuzzis...
Some people live by water (I do, there's a large pond in my backyard), be it rivers, coastlines, lakes.
Things live IN water -- water supports so many living things like animals, plants, and other wee organisms.
Some people make their livelihood off of water and its related resources. There's a culture who build floating islands woven from reeds, and they just live on them. Talk about living close to the water!
Water is officially really awesome and it makes me happy. So go drink a tall glass of water now. :)