• CTDummy@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    It threw me at first too. Helps to think of it as wetness being an interaction between a liquid and solid. Water makes things wet, it isn’t itself wet.

      • CTDummy@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        You’d have to ask a physicist. I would be surprised if you couldn’t make other liquids “wet”. The solid analogy helps with conceptualising an interface, one material on another. I suppose you could make water wet, by freezing a block and then splashing said block with water but that doesn’t equate to it being wet itself, if that makes sense.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        Wetting is a rather complex topic. Basically, yes.

        Not all solids can be wetted. Wax, for example: water beads up on a waxed surface; it does not actually wet the surface.

        Not all “wetting” involves water. Soldering and brazing involve “wetting” base materials with a molten filler metal. Dripping molten metal on the base material does not necessarily “wet” it either: the molten filler can “bead” just like water on wax. When it solidifies, the filler metal is not bonded to the unwetted base metal.

    • tyler@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      wet containing moisture or volatile components

      Water is wet. The fact that this is an argument is ridiculous.

      • finley@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        This describes very specifically how water makes other things wet. Nowhere, does it describe water making itself wet, because it can’t. Wetness is a property that water can only give to other things, not to itself.

        • tyler@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          moisture wetness caused by water

          water is wet. water contains moisture, because water is moisture.

          Or you can go the chemical route, which is so eloquently put by Professor Richard Saykally:

          they’d say, “Strong tetrahedral hydrogen bonding!” But that’s the correct answer. That’s what makes water wet.

          https://gizmodo.com/what-makes-water-wet-1713082349

          Or if you’re more into videos you can watch an entire lecture on it. https://vimeo.com/11854837

          Because water is fucking wet.

          • finley@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            4 months ago

            I see where you’re mistaken: water isn’t wet, it just makes things wet.

            • tyler@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              4 months ago

              Lol literally arguing with a chemist who’s only job was studying water. Yeah I can see where you’re mistaken. Thinking you’re smarter than the professionals.

              • finley@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                4 months ago

                I see where you’re mistaken: water isn’t wet, it just makes things wet.