Several times each day, your body takes in a chemical called hydrogen oxide.
It has the power to eat away solid rock over time. In its frozen state, mighty hydrogen oxide can crack concrete! It can also destroy the cells of plants and animals.
Hydrogen oxide is the chemical name for water. The chemical symbol is so familiar that it is a nickname for water: H2O. The H stands for an atom of hydrogen, which is positively charged. The 2 indicates that there are two atoms of hydrogen. The O stands for an atom of oxygen, which is negatively charged. So, water is a bond between three atoms: two positively (+) charged hydrogen atoms and a negatively (-) charged oxygen atom—H-O-H. That is true whether the water is a liquid, solid (ice), or gas (water vapor).
Water may seem ordinary, but it has some properties no other substance has. Water is a supersolvent! Water has the power to dissolve things like no other substance can. To find out more about what water can do, you can test many of its properties right in your own kitchen.
