Well if water didn’t have its unique properties of cohesion and adhesion we likely wouldn’t be here anyways.
Now think about what would happen if ice didn’t float.
I’m not a geologist, but I’m imagine that the deep ocean would be a colossal underwater glacier, with intermixed sedimentary layers. Kind of like what we have with methane hydrate deposits, only much, much deeper. The super-deep ocean simply wouldn’t exist, and we might not even know about the Mariana Trench, or a lot of other sea floor features. Also, it’s possible a different proportion of the world’s water would be frozen in this way.
With ice as a part of the sea floor, it would also interact with subduction zones at continental edges. That might push a LOT more superheated water into volcanoes, faults, and everywhere else water could go. That would probably make for a lot more geysers in such areas, and volcanic eruptions would be far more energetic.
The trajectory of human history and technology would also be changed. There might have been fewer ice bridges between continents during the last ice age. Ice-skating wouldn’t become as common a thing until we get refrigeration. Harvesting ice in the winter would require bodies of water to freeze solid first, making it impractical except in shallow areas.
I’m also going to wager that glaciers would behave differently too. I don’t know enough about their dynamics, but I wonder if having meltwater on the bottom helps lubricate their movements somewhat. Kind of like a lava flow, only slower. Inverting that relationship might make glaciers far less mobile.
at least it wouldn’t wet your socks. i think capillary action relies on surface tension
It relies on differences in surface tension. If a liquid has a lower surface tension (energy) towards one surface than another, you get the typical capillary effect. In the case of water, the water-air energy is lower than the water-<whatever your capillary is made of> energy, so you get a capillary effect.
If water had exactly zero surface tension against every interface,
- it would not exhibit any capillary action
- life on earth would cease to exist quite quickly
- your socks would remain dry
life on earth would cease to exist quite quickly
your socks would remain dry
This reminds me of the person that suggested in a response to a request for ADHD “life-hacks” where they would wet one of their socks before starting a specific high-importance task and could not take it off until the specified task was completed.
I see, quite similar to the ol’ light-your-hair-on-fire-to-motivate-yourself-to-shower trick. Clever!
That is a weapons-grade life hack right there.
That’s how gasoline spills (on water) work. They cover the water about one molecule thick.
So you’re saying my floor needs to be water?
That would actually be a very useful tool for machinists. I think it would make it much easier to find out how non-flat something it
For a liquid to be a liquid, rather than a gas, it needs to be held together by intermolecular forces. Which means it will have some amount of surface tension. I therefore dismiss this hypothetical as physically unrealistic! :P
Unless its a hydrocarbon product, which can (and does) spread over surfaces it can’t mix with/soak into in single molecules thick sheets.
supercritical helium does some really weird shit, I’d call this one plausible.
supercritical
does some really weird shit
I’m no geologist, but I could have guessed that without any further specifics 😉
Supercritical fluids are more like a gas than a liquid. Their lack of surface tension means they’ll diffuse throughout whatever container you put them in, so they can’t really be “poured” like a liquid can. They’re actually a pretty good example of why liquids need surface tension to be liquid.
that’s a pretty good point, it’s literally trapped between being a liquid and a gas. If this was BattleBots, they’d let it compete once and then ban it.
“Trapped between liquid and gas” is kind of the opposite of what a supercritical fluid is. It’s more that gas and liquid states are “trapped” in a region of phase space, while supercritical fluids exist in the place where the demarcation between the two no longer exists (which is usually a far larger region than where it does).
Superfluid. It can be supercritical, but superfluid is the special thing for helium.
You do some pretty weird shit.
Oh, snaaaaaap.
Aha! But languical constructs allow and do allow hyperboles! So it could be argued that the colleague asked for the minimum allowed by our bindings law!
I request a motion to dismiss your dismissal :>
wouldn’t this evaporate extremely quick though?
Yeah, I’ll often spread spilled water across the table just so that it evaporates within a couple minutes.
Bold of you to assume my floor is level.
Not only that, but level with 2 micrometers tolerance is something only specialized CNC milling workbenches achieve
Yeah, that guy must have a really flat floor
I love this comment section
At 2 micrometers, it’s going to evaporate too fast for there to be a
puddlethin film of water.Oh! The humidity!
I think that’s part of our anthropic bias, not sure we’d be alive without water’s surface tension in order to observe this.
Well cells wouldn’t be circle shaped, but would it actually be to the detriment of life in that or other ways?
Maybe cells could take a more pragmatic shape, like tactical dicks
Trees wouldn’t exist, so life would definitely look different.
I think that could make some life-supporting chemical reactions difficult to happen, but I’m not qualified to judge that.
I don’t, not that I am qualified to say so either! The larger surface area might be beneficial for osmosis!
I’m also not qualified, but I do wonder whether releasing all that surface tension inside us would alleviate a lot of anxiety. I think yes.
Ever spilled a drop of diesel? Exactly that happens
I read that in Meatwad’s voice.
made me reread it
Did someone say oxygen not included?
