Water is one of the few substances on Earth that
expands when it freezes. Most materials contract. (This is why you should not put a can of soda in the freezer...)
A simple but environmentally important and unusual property of water is that its common solid form, ice, floats on its liquid form. As a solid, water is less dense that as a liquid, thus why it floats. This is due to how the molecules arrange themselves when freezing. What is even stranger about this is that colder water is more dense than warmer water, until it becomes ice.
The
Mpemba effect is the observation that, in some specific circumstances, hotter water freezes faster than colder water. Crazy, huh?!
The effect of dams have altered the rotation and speed of the Earth.
In Hong Kong, sea water is extensively used for flushing toilets citywide in order to conserve fresh water resources.
There is a misconception that a toilet flushes (or a tub drains) in a different direction when south of the equator. In reality, the
Coriolis Effect is much too small compared to other influences on drain direction, such as the geometry of the tank; and the direction in which water was initially added to it.
Erosion formed the Grand Canyon.
It takes 23 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes, it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef.
Check out Dame Anita Roddick's wonderful
book on water. In Architecture, we are always fighting gravity and water. Perhaps this is why I am so interested in them.
More on water...Labels: water
