# Is water a chemical? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593 "2004-03-04T22:02:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/21 "2004-03-05T07:00:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Let’s not pretty up the situation, here. Call this vile substance by its proper name, Hydroxic Acid. But at the same time, it’s also known as Hydrogen Hydroxide. We recall from chemistry class what mixing acids and bases in equal molarities does…right? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Time\_Like\_Tears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@Time\_Like\_Tears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Time_Like_Tears)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/22 "2004-03-05T07:38:31Z")
> [@cainxinth](#): > > nitpick: > Distillation produces pure water doesn’t it? Ok, I amend that by adding a word or two; I don’t think there is any water naturally occuring on Earth that is pure H2O. I screwed up Chemistry in high school (mainly because balancing equations made up an entire semester, and that’s just factoring, and I am horrible at algebra), but I got the basic concepts. Two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom make up a molecule of water, blah blah. Being the universal solvent that it is, water in anything other than a perfectly sterile environment is saturated with other junk. So don’t drink tap water in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Davard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8dc957/32.png) [@Davard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Davard)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/23 "2004-03-05T11:11:09Z")
surely water isn’t an entirely universal solvent, recalling a recent SD article about spicy food. ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/24 "2004-03-05T11:31:03Z")
> [@Davard](#): > > surely water isn’t an entirely universal solvent, recalling a recent SD article about spicy food. No, water is not a universal solvent, there is no such thing as a universal solvent. Nothing exists which dissolves everything else which exists, it would be impossible. But many many things do dissolve in water and life on this planet is based on that fact. But if you are looking at **kniz** ’s link above, you’ll see that the website it links to is a schools site and while it is useful for basic concepts, it shouldn’t be taken as the final word on water. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/25 "2004-03-05T11:39:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Water is called the “universal solvent” because it dissolves more substances than any other liquid And to be fair to it, it does say water dissolved the MOST substances, and not ALL substances, though they did use a very misleading name. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/26 "2004-03-05T12:49:39Z")
[Dihydrogen monoxide](http://www.dhmo.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/27 "2004-03-05T13:04:06Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > Not quite. Volatiles dissolved in the water (such as alcohols) may also condense out into the distillate, and atmospheric contaminants might find their way in. Distilled water will be virtually free of dissolved solids, such as salts, but will never reach 100% purity. If nothing else, atmospheric gasses will eventually dissolve in it. Thats funny, not according to my chemistry teacher, who showed us that distilled water does not conduct a current because it is in it’s pure form and has no ions. I do believe alchohol dissolved in water would produce ions, no? And our molar mass lab showed us conclusively that seperating hydrogen and oxygen from water (electrolysis) left us with 2 parts hydrogen, 1 part water and nothing else left over. No gaps in the math, no funny residues left over. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/28 "2004-03-05T13:16:05Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > I do believe alchohol dissolved in water would produce ions, no? In a word, no. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/29 "2004-03-05T13:19:26Z")
Explain then, are Alchohols not composed of hydroxides (OH) and does 0H not have a negative charge? Do alchohols not contain Carbon? Carbons do not have a positive 4 charge? How are these not ions? ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/30 "2004-03-05T13:32:12Z")
I realize that teachers are not infalible and all, so I certainly am not going to say anything along the lines of he must be right and you must be wrong, but he does have a science texbook supporting him (Zumdahl, Introductory Chemistry, fith edition) and I don’t see any reason to doubt him or it. However, If I see some cites and or a very good explination of why his reasoning is flawed, or that I am misinterpreting what he and my notes are saying, I am not opposed to seeing the light of truth and repenting my ignorant ideas. But saying “In a word, no” with no explanation is merely calling Ignorance names, and in no way constitues “fighting Ignorance.” ---
**Author:** ![JHW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@JHW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHW)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/31 "2004-03-05T13:33:25Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > Thats funny, not according to my chemistry teacher, who showed us that distilled water does not conduct a current because it is in it’s pure form and has no ions. I do believe alchohol dissolved in water would produce ions, no? It shouldn’t. Alcohols dissolved in water do not ionize. It takes a reasonably strong base to ionize alcohols. > [@](#): > > And our molar mass lab showed us conclusively that seperating hydrogen and oxygen from water (electrolysis) left us with 2 parts hydrogen, 1 part water and nothing else left over. No gaps in the math, no funny residues left over. Pure water does not conduct electricity very well, as you mentioned above. It has a very high resistivity (18 megaohms per cm – this is used as a measure of water purity). To carry out electrolysis well you need to add some kind of electrolyte to the water – usually a salt or some dilute sulfuric acid. That electrolyte has to go somewhere. If you were looking for it, you would have found it. Distillation gets water pretty clean, but all atmospheric gases are soluble in water to some extent (that’s how fish live). Gas solubility in water decreases as the temperature is raised, so the boiling during distillation rids the water of many of its dissolved gases, but as the distillate cools, atmospheric gases begin to re-dissolve in it. CO2 dissolves in water to produce a mildly acidic solution. That’s why even distilled water that has been standing in contact with air has a slightly acidic pH. There is a procedure called reverse-osmosis that gets water very clean. We use it in our lab. Generally it’s easier to implement on a small scale, and more energy-efficient, than distillation. It produces nice clean “18 megaohm” water for lab use. Super-pure. You can easily tell distilled or deionized water from tap water by adding a bit of silver nitrate. The tap water produces a cloudiness resulting from trace precipitation of insoluble silver chloride due to chloride ions in the tap water. These are absent in the distilled water. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/32 "2004-03-05T13:37:58Z")
Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/33 "2004-03-05T13:43:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Explain then, are Alchohols not composed of hydroxides (OH) and does 0H not have a negative charge? Do alchohols not contain Carbon? Carbons do not have a positive 4 charge? How are these not ions? Sigh. Ionic compounds are crystalline solids, like common table salt, that are held together by electrostatic force. In water, they dissociate into ions. Alcohol is not an ionic compound. It is held together by covalent bonds, i.e. the sharing of electrons between atoms. An alcohol molecule has no net charge, but it does have its positive and negative charges unevenly distributed. That makes it a “polar” molecule, just like water. In contrast, simple hydrocarbons like pentane or octane and non-polar, having a fairly even charge distribution. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/34 "2004-03-05T13:44:10Z")
They aren’t ionic bonds, they’re covalent bonds. Alcohols are molecules that are happy to stick together, they even like to hang out with other alcohols and snuggle in tight. ---
**Author:** ![JHW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@JHW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHW)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/35 "2004-03-05T13:44:55Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > Explain then, are Alchohols not composed of hydroxides (OH) and does 0H not have a negative charge? Do alchohols not contain Carbon? Carbons do not have a positive 4 charge? How are these not ions? You need to distinguish between ionic and covalent bonding. In solid sodium hydroxide, the crystals are a lattice of sodium (Na+) and hydroxide (OH-) ions. There is no sharing of electrons between the Na+ and OH- – it is an ionic compound. When you dissolve the solid in water, the water molecules separate and solvate the ions. You basically have a solution of sodium and hydroxide ions in water. The solution conducts electricity, and shows an alkaline pH because of these OH- ions. Alcohols have a OH group, and we call it a hydroxyl group, not a “hydroxide”. It is not ionic in nature. The electrons in the carbon-oxygen bond in alcohols are shared (not equally, but still shared) between the carbon and the oxygen. To create hydroxide ions from an aqueous solution of alcohol would require tearing the electrons away from the carbon atom and giving them all to the oxygen. This is very thermodynamically unfavourable. If alcohols were to ionize at all, it would be a process like ROH → RO- + H+. This happens if you have a strong enough base. In water at pH 7, only about one in 100,000,000 alcohol molecules will be present as “RO-” and “H+”. ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/36 "2004-03-05T14:07:47Z")
I can’t believe this slipped through the cracks for so long… \>oh? hmm…I cant really imagine seeing an electric spark in a vacuum. As far as i \>know, a spark is seen in lightning because the air molecules get “plasmarize” \>and explode in a sense. Infact, i think you cant even get an electric current going \>in vacuum. No medium. Ever heard of a vacuum tube, or a cathode ray tube? Electrons most definitely can, and do, go through a vacuum, and I’ll bet dimes to dollars they do so in your own house every day. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/37 "2004-03-05T14:16:18Z")
> [@Desmostylus](#): > > Sigh. > > Ionic compounds are crystalline solids, like common table salt, that are held together by electrostatic force. In water, they dissociate into ions. Great answer, but if it was such a chore maybe you should stay out of GQ. Doesn’t seem to be worth the stress for you. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/38 "2004-03-05T15:59:25Z")
> [@](#): > > _Flying Monk wrote:_ > Ever heard of a vacuum tube, or a cathode ray tube? Electrons most definitely can, and do, go through a vacuum, and I’ll bet dimes to dollars they do so in your own house every day. To be clear, Nishroch Order was responding to someone who mentioned an “electric spark in a vacuum.” You can’t have a spark in a vacuum, like he said, but you can have electron flow, like you said. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/39 "2004-03-05T16:46:25Z")
wow. ask a simple question… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593/40 "2004-03-05T19:09:26Z")
> [@MSUbulldogs101](#): > > actually it is a compound. made of 2 elements. look it up. [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) Please, do tell, enlighten us. How, prithee, is it that a “compound” cannot be a “chemical”? We await your words as we would pearls of honey dripping from a concubine’s bosom. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-water-a-chemical/232593.md?page=3)