Seawater Chemistry:
What if water was not a polar molecule?
Saltwater!
In this assignment you’ll be asked to think about the special properties of water, and how
life on earth would be different if it wasn’t so unique. In particular, it’s the polar nature of
the water molecule, and the hydrogen bonds between water molecules, that give it most of
its unique properties.
For this assignment we’ll be reviewing these properties of water, and then brainstorming to
get an idea of what earth would be like if water was not a polar molecule.
First, make sure you have read and reviewed the sections 5.1 and 5.2 in your textbook. You
may also want to view these animations if you haven’t already done so:
• Water Phase Changes
• Properties of Water
Part I. What if water was not a polar molecule?
For each of the following 4 properties:
A. Describe in a few words how each property would change if water molecules
were not polar (for example, would it increase, decrease, not change at all)
B. Describe at least 3 things on earth that would be different because of that change.
(i.e., for the ocean, atmosphere, living things, daily life, etc.)
1. Ability to dissolve salts (ionic compounds)
2. Cohesiveness
3. Heat capacity (or specific heat)
4. Density of solid vs liquid
Turn in Part I on Blackboard in Weekly Tasks under this assignment.
Part II. Follow-up Discussion
For this section, I will be compiling responses from Part I and posting them on the
Discussion Board. There are usually a lot of different ideas, including ones I’d never
thought of before! Based on the responses I post, I’ll be asking a few follow-up questions.
This part will be done AFTER Part I is turned in, and will be due the following week.