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water: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As H2O

Photos and Videos

water rapids, Niagara Falls, Canada
polar bear on ice floe
Diagram of the water cycle showing processes like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, infiltration, and groundwater flow between land, vegetation, surface water, and the ocean, with labeled arrows and color-coded soil moisture and groundwater zones.
Hoover Dam
Diagram showing the municipal water treatment process, with water flowing from a natural source through intake screens, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection, and finally distribution as purified water, with waste removed at various stages.
Diagram showing the formation of a polar covalent bond in a water molecule, with two hydrogen atoms bonding to one oxygen atom to form H2O, illustrating shared electrons and chemical reaction.
Numerous water droplets of varying sizes scattered across a smooth, reflective flat surface.
Diagram showing a sodium ion (Na+) at the center surrounded by a hydration shell of water molecules, with labels indicating the partially ordered region around the ion and the transition to bulk water farther away.
Earth
boiling
The chemistry of water
Which has a lower freezing point, salt water or fresh water?
splitting water
Experiment: Dissolving M&M's candy coating with different liquids
The water cycle: From the ocean to the air
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Topics
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Key People

Portrait of French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, shown in formal 18th-century attire with a white wig and ruffled cravat, looking slightly to his left.
Antoine Lavoisier
French chemist
Henry Cavendish
Henry Cavendish
British physicist
Etching by Jacob de Gheyn III showing Thales of Miletus seated with a long beard, draped in robes, holding a compass over an open book with geometric diagrams.
Thales of Miletus
Greek philosopher
default image
Jacques Dubochet
Swiss biophysicist
Charles-François Sturm
Charles-François Sturm
French-Swiss mathematician
default image
Jean André Deluc
Swiss-British geologist and meteorologist
default image
Johann Wilhelm Ritter
German physicist
Nicholson, William
William Nicholson
English chemist and inventor
default image
Henri-Émile Bazin
French engineer
default image
Francis Hauksbee, the Elder
English scientist

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