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Water
• Heat Energy and Water
• Density Structure of Seawater
• Optical (Light) Properties
• Sound in Seawater
Density & Temperature
ICE FLOATS!
Heat Energy and Water
• Heat is energy produced by molecular vibration (number of molecules and
how rapidly they vibrate). The calorie is the unit of heat.
• In contrast, the specific heat of sand is about 0.1 calories. It does not
resist change in temperature with gain or release of heat. Think of hot,
mid-day, beach sand versus the cooler seawater; both received the same
solar energy.
Sensible versus Latent Heat of Water
Liquid water temperature responds in a constant manner as heat is added
or removed; we call this sensible heat as we can make sense of heat
change by measuring temperature change with a thermometer.
PSYCH!
Light is absorbed and scattered as
it passes through water, so less
light reaches greater depths.