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Article: Fresh Water, Physics and Chemistry of
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Fresh Water, Physics and Chemistry of
Every water molecule (H
2
O) consists of one atom of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen, as shown below. Each hydrogen atom is attached to the oxygen atom by a
covalent bond
in which the hydrogen atom shares an electron with the oxygen atom. The shared electron is slightly closer to the oxygen atom than to the hydrogen atom.
A water molecule has no net charge because the number of positively charged protons equals the number of negatively charged electrons. However, because the hydrogen ends of the molecule have a slight positive charge and the oxygen end has a slight negative charge, it is called a polar molecule. The negative and positive ends of ...