# Is one molecule of water wet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 10, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126 "2007-08-10T13:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/21 "2007-08-10T17:41:42Z")
When water molicules have space between them, you have steam…a gas, not a liquid. If there are no droplets of liquid within the steam, it is said to be dry. So no, individual water molicules are not wet. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/22 "2007-08-10T17:43:41Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Nobody knows. [/QUOTE] If that is the case, then what is the most minute amount of water that could be detected by humans. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/23 "2007-08-10T18:10:09Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Nobody knows. [/QUOTE] Nonsense. We only need to define what “wet” means, and compare the effects of one molecule of water to that definition. I would define “wet” as being the characteristic that water behaves like a fluid continuum and acts as a weakly polar solvent, which is really just a more formal way of stating what **Staggerlee** and **Pygmy Rugger** have already said. Since one molecule is discrete, it can’t be considered a continuum or treated like a fluid, and while technically it will “dissolve” another molecule out of a substance, for all practical matters one molecule of water isn’t going to be noticed. In fact, if we arbitrarily define a drop of water to be on the order of 1 gram, it’s going to take sextillions of water molecules all bonded together to make something noticibly wet. So no, one molecule of water isn’t “wet”. “Wet”, in a practical sense, is where you can see or feel a fluid continuum of water. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/24 "2007-08-10T18:22:30Z")
Is there a measure of wetness? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/25 "2007-08-10T18:27:14Z")
Whoosh! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/26 "2007-08-10T18:51:36Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] Is there a measure of wetness? [/QUOTE] Civil and environmental engineers measure soil moisture content or soil wetness. Beyond that, “wetness” doesn’t really have a specific technical meaning or metric, although we can talk about the properties relating to viscosity, electrical or thermal conductivity, rate of evaporation, ionization, acidity, and other phenomena associated with water and contaminants therein. [QUOTE=Ludovic] Whoosh! [/QUOTE] Urk? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/27 "2007-08-10T18:55:38Z")
If a water molecule falls in the forest and nobody’s around, does it make a splash? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/28 "2007-08-10T19:15:13Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] [you weren’t](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8868487&postcount=5) 😛 [/QUOTE] I’ve been humming that song the whole thread, hoping it wasn’t referenced. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/29 "2007-08-10T19:18:57Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Whoosh! [/QUOTE] Don’t you mean “sploosh”? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126/30 "2007-08-10T20:19:50Z")
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas] This might be more of a philosophical question. How many molecules of water do you need before it’s wet? “Wet” is not a quality of water, it is a quality of an object that has water on it. For example, the cohesion of water to itself is greater than its adhesion to something like wax, so wax doesn’t truly get wet. But for a surface that can get wet, one molecule is enough to say that it’s wet. [/QUOTE] I’d say at least 30. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-one-molecule-of-water-wet/415126.md?page=1)