Water do you understand it? Zooming in and out of water

I don’t understand why water has so many properties on different scales ranging from very large and cosmic to very small quantum and quirky.

You may listen to this program NOW on Demand on the BBC Discovery Page which is available until Tuesday the 21st of March. It will also be broadcast on Sunday the 19th of March in Phuket at 8:30 AM on 91.5 FM and 102.5 FM and Online via the Internet radio portals.

Could you help by zooming in and out on the water to explain what is known about it? Asks Neil Morton in Stirling.

Rutherford and Fry learn about the special hydrogen bonds that make water such an unusual liquid.

Quantum physicist Professor Patricia Hunt at the Victoria University in Wellington in New Zealand explains to Hannah the quantum properties of individual water molecules and how they link up with other water molecules in liquid water and solid ice.

She describes the hydrogen bonds that give the water some of its weird and fantastic properties, such as why ice floats, why water can store vast amounts of heat and why water has such a strong surface tension.

Science writer and author of ‘H2O – a biography of water’ Philip Ball describes how in the 18th century it was discovered that water was not one of the classical elements. Still, a compound liquid of water and hydrogen explains to Adam why there are at least 15 different types of ice.

Physicist Dr Helen Czerski sets the record straight on how ice forms in oceans and lakes and why water is at its densest at 4 degrees Centigrade and not zero.

BBC Discovery presenters, Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford Producer: Fiona Roberts

Recent BBC Discovery Broadcasts.

Part 2 in this series The weirdness of water, is now available.

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