If you take a glass of water and turn it upside down most of the water dumps out immediately, but not all of it. Why is that?

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Why is it that a small percentage of the water is able to defy gravity and cling to the inside of the glass? Also if you hold it upside down long enough more will eventually come out but it feels like it takes forever.

In: Physics

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Water molecules have a highly negatively charged oxygen atom bound to two positively charged hydrogen atoms. The final structure has a very lopsided charge, with both hydrogen atoms on one side and the negative oxygen atom’s butt sticking out the other.

This makes every water molecule a tiny little magnet, and they like to cling to eachother and many surfaces.

This force isn’t strong enough to hold the entire volume of water against gravity, but it will help a film of water cling to the surface for a while.

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