this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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Saying water is wet because it touches water sounds like "Fire is on fire because it touches fire". It just sounds fundamentally illogical as you're talking about a state of matter, not the matter itself.
I'm not a scientist, just throwing in my view on this
Well fire has a specific definition of something being oxidized, so does being wet.
Like are you wet if you were a molecule of water surrounded by water?
It seems, to me at least, any molecule that wasn't water surrounded by it is wet.
Which is still a definition for a state (or process/chemical reaction). Something that causes the state/reaction (like oxygen, salt and water on metal) cannot be a state in itself, therefore the logic tells me water in itself cannot be wet as it's not reacting with something else
If you drive down far enough, I don't think "wet" even remains to be a property something can have. As was mentioned, what is wetness to an individual molecule? It must be surrounded? Are all molecules "wet" with air, then?
"Wet" as a concept I think is really only useful to people communicating to each other what to expect. For instance, if I asked what was in the fridge, and you said "nothing", it would be weird if I came to correct you: "duh, actually, there is a speck of dust in the corner. And not only that, it's actually completely full! Of air." This is because what you meant was, "to eat."
A "wet" towel will feel damp and watery to a person picking it up in a way almost indistinguishable from water itself, and this is enough to say that both are wet. But, if I had spilled water, and you wanted to know how many things had gotten wet—well, these are a different set of expectations, and so maybe I wouldn't count the water.
If we come up with a definition for this process, then yes, why not.
But you see, if I ask you for a wet towel, it will sound normal. If I'd ask you for wet water, I'd look mentally questionable
I think this is because water is always wet. It's a bit redundant.
That is, unless,
We had a lot of ice. And, "wet water" was a very silly way of asking for the melted kind. I might think you bumped your head, but I would know what you meant.
"Is water wet" is not a complete question. I don't know what the asker's expectations are, so a satisfying answer is not really possible.
This is not too different from the ship of theseus being a difficult, brainteasing paradox until you clarify what exactly is meant by "is the ship of theseus." "Which of these two boats is registered to me by the boat authority" is a much simpler question to answer.