this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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Wwweeeeeeeellllllll see, water is also touching itself constantly. Something being wet is a material surrounded by water, like the fibers of a sponge surrounded by water, in example.
In water, every water molecule is surrounded by water molecules. This means every given water molecule can be considered wet. And thus water is wet.
So if I set my hand in water it's not wet because it's not immersed? What if it's not water?
Can other liquids be wet? If I dump water into a bucket of gasoline, is my gasoline wet?
If I mix a soluble powder into water, like sugar, do I have wet sugar or sugared water? Do they have to be in contact? Is a phone in a bag in water wet because it's surrounded by water, or dry because there's air between it and the water?
What about those hydrophobic materials that can be dunked in water and come out dry? What about non-liquid phases of water? Is steam wet? If I dump water on ice is there a difference in how wet it is?
The common colloquial definition of "wet" is "to be touched by a liquid". The scientific is for a liquid to displace a gas to maintain contact with a surface via intramolecular forces. Water becomes a better wetter if we add soap because it no longer tries to bind to itself instead of what it's wetting.
Neither of these has the water itself being wet, but you can have "wet ice".
Let's not pretend that a more scientific sounding colloquial definition is actually more scientific.
If I have a single water molecule then it is still water but it isn’t touching any other water molecule, thus it isn’t wet
Exactly. So the only instance water is dry, and thus not wet, is if it's a single lonely molecule.
But water tends to come in herds, so that basically never happens.
Is the polar-bonded surface layer of water wet? It is not entirely surrounded by water.
I'd say that's dry, as it's in contact with air. Or perhaps just moist, as it's partially in contact with water.
Well no one would consider something with a single water molecule on it wet either.
Yup, that further confirms what I said