Miracle of Water, Key to Innovation
Water is one of the weird things in nature. It doesn’t seem to follow the rules that other materials follow. One of the essential skills to being innovative is finding and understanding odd cases. The better you are at seeing the things that don’t fit the established rules the better you will be able to innovate. Innovation is simply discovering a more accurate view of the truth and implementing your discovery.
The weird behavior of water suggests to me that other rules are in play. If we can uncover what is really going on we will make a ton of new discoveries.
I had planned on writing my own article about water but the same day I received the following article in one of the many newsletter to which I subscribe. Since its states the case for water being unusual so well I figured I’d just pass it along.
The winter months are rapidly approaching. In cities and towns across the nation temperatures have begun to drop. Here in North Idaho, a blanket of freshly fallen snow has enveloped Koinonia House. Like the staff here at K-House, many of you will have the opportunity to enjoy the poetry and beauty – and the needed respites – of the ice and snow of this special season.
Have you ever noticed that ice floats? Why?
Virtually every material substance contracts when it cools. As it gets warmer, the molecules increase their vibrational energy and require more room: the substance therefore expands as it warms. And, conversely, it contracts as it cools. Materials decrease in volume as they get colder. Water is the astonishing exception. It expands when it freezes into a solid. Why does water violate this general rule? Why does water expand when freezing?
The water molecule is a (not-so-simple) combination of two atoms of hydrogen bonded to one of oxygen. Yet this particular combination possesses an amazing array of unique characteristics that distinguish it from any other material known!
The Freezing Process
Although almost all materials decrease in volume as they get colder, water has an astonishing characteristic. As it drops toward its freezing point of 0oC (32o F), its volume also reduces until it reaches 4oC, after which it actually increases. In a pond or lake, for example, this “inverse convection” has the salutary effect of bringing oxygen dissolved at the surface down to the lower depths for use by fish and other organisms. This process continues until the entire area has reached 4oC. As the water cools below this temperature, it dramatically increases in volume, making it lighter than the water below. This ultimately causes the top layer to freeze, which then actually acts as an insulation layer against the very low temperature of the air above. If water did not have this strange property, the entire pond or lake would freeze solid and fish and other living creatures would be killed.
This expansion can have disastrous effects on uninsulated water pipes in winter. However, this expansion effect has essential functions in nature. The rain or dew penetrates the soil, and when it freezes, the soil is shattered into small particles, breaking up the hard earth into suitable conditions in which seeds can germinate.
Why This Exceptional Behavior?
This strange behavior derives from the unusual bonding relationship between the two hydrogen atoms and the one oxygen atom that make up a molecule of water, H2O. The oxygen atom strongly attracts the single electrons of the two hydrogen atoms, leaving the two positively charged hydrogen nuclei rather free to attract other negative atoms. This attracts the oxygen molecules in other water molecules to form rather large, but loosely coupled, frameworks.
These atoms are not in a straight line, however, and the hydrogen atoms are bent toward each other, forming an asymmetrical three-dimensional structure. The angle formed between the two hydrogen and the central oxygen atom is 104.5o, almost precisely that of a hexagonal tetrahedron shape (109.5o), so it can take up this shape (slightly warped three-dimensionally) with little stress on the bonds. Opposite the hydrogen atoms, the clouds of resulting negative electrification attract the hydrogen nucleus of an adjacent water molecule to form what is called a hydrogen bond – the key to water’s peculiar behavior.
These tenacious hydrogen bond frameworks give water many astonishing characteristics, including anomalously high values for viscosity, surface tension, and the temperature and heats of melting and boiling. This results in its ubiquitous role as a solvent, its remarkable thermal properties, its surface tension and capillary action, and virtually innumerable chemical properties that are essential for life.
One would expect that these unique properties would make it a very rare molecule, produced only with great difficulty under laboratory conditions. The reality is, of course, quite the opposite: it is the most prevalent material on the planet, covering three-fourths of its surface, diffused extensively in the atmosphere, and – to the surprise of geologists – also found at astonishing depths in the earth. That such a unique substance should be in such abundance is in contradiction to any expectation of random chance alone.
Snow
Water vapor is a clear gas, which, as it cools under normal conditions, condenses and forms into water droplets. At high altitudes, water vapor can cool to below freezing, but in the absence of an impurity such as dust, around which it can collect, it will remain in this state.
When ice crystals form, the molecules of water arrange themselves in a specific pattern that is determined by the tetrahedral shape of the molecule in the frozen state described above. As further molecules join those already frozen, they give up their high latent heat of freezing, and melt the adjacent molecules, which reform to a shape dependent upon the local conditions of air temperature, wind currents, humidity, etc. Each snowflake pattern is unique to itself, but is always based upon the hexagonal bonding pattern of the ice crystals familiar to us all.
Snow also has a constructive role in the ecological cycle. It filters dust out of the air, absorbs nitrogen which then enters the soil, and acts as an insulating blanket to the plants and roots in the ground. The difference in temperature between the air and the ground covered by two feet of snow can be as much as 40oC.
When snow melts, it requires considerable heat to affect this, and therefore melts slowly, lowering the rate of melt water and reducing the flooding that could occur if the latent heat of freezing were lower.
In addition to all these unique properties, snow also has the added ability of reflecting all the colors of the spectrum to yield pure white. Is no wonder that we often find ourselves in awe of the sheer beauty of a layer of freshly fallen snow. May the tell-tale signs of winter throughout the coming months serve to remind you of the wonderful works of our Lord.
If one very simply thing like water can be so amazing, just think about how many innovations and new understandings are possible if you are willing to look with an open mind.
Action Items
- List three (3) things that break the accepted rules. These can be physical items, behaviors, anything.
- List the basic assumptions that go into making the rule.
- List some things that were previously thought to be impossible that would become possible if that assumption was changed.
- List some changes you would like to see happen that would occur if a basic assumption was changed. Choose any assumption personal, scientific, popular, anything.
Want vs. Need
I’m going to teach you something that will change your life forever. It’s very simple and it’s an essential element to happiness, success or just avoiding misery.
If you plan to be successful, fulfilled or just avoid misery an essential step is to understand the difference between Need and Want.
People often use those words interchangeably. But the two words are very different. Beyond a mere level of importance want is different from need.
We all understand want, it’s a feeling. Want is self existent. There is no reason or validation required to want. You want, end of story. Many times our wants really aren’t our but I’ll cover that topic in another article.
Need is what we tend to have the most difficulty with. We have so much difficulty with the concept of need that most people don’t even use it properly in a sentence.
I’m sure you have heard someone say, “You need to clean up your room”, or “you need to exercise”, or “you need to have fun.” Do you realize that none of those are complete thoughts? Do you know what is missing? It’s obvious once I tell you. And when you hear it you will never look at the world the same. Each of those statements is missing the reason.
When you say, “need” or “must” or “should” there is always a “reason” or an “in order to” that goes with it. For instance, “You should clean your room, in order to avoid losing things.” And, “You need to have fun, to be healthy.”
Now think about every time you have said, need, must, should, or ought. What was the reason? Until you know the reason for your actions you can’t determine if the action is correct. How can you tell if what you are doing will achieve the goal unless you know what the goal is?
Action Items:
- Make a list of the “need” statements you most often use.
- Add at least one “in order to” for each “need”.
- Make a list of “need” statements you hear others use.
- Either, ask others for their “in order to” or try to figure out some.
- Reassess your and other peoples actions based on “in order to” statements.
I’m a Sci-Fi Character
Some times I forget how unusual my life is. My friend and business partner, The Shad0w, creator of BitTornado, and I were recently talking about copyrights, the RIAA, abuses of the legal system and methods for fixing the problem. Mind you I have only seen Shad0w face to face once when we happened to be traveling through the same city at the same time. Anyways we were talking about a way for small down trodden people to do a little legal judo to stop the abusive lawsuits of the RIAA. The solution I came up with was an automated system of filing legal proceedings to tie up the RIAA and cause them to loose a bunch of money attacking unemployed people, grandmothers and 12 year old girls. We could make the whole thing free to access by anyone that needed it and create the legal equivalent of a distributed denial of service attack. Yes, that is the type of stuff we idly chat about.
Anyways, Shad0w said that the idea wasn’t new and that science fiction author Charles Stross invented the concept in his book Accelerando. You can buy the book on Amazon.com or just download a copy because it is published under a Creative Commons license. Shad0w Instant Messaged me a link, I download a copy and start listening to it using a text to speech program then tap the keystrokes to switch to a different computer to continue writing software for one of my clients, again who is in another state and for whom I do all my work remotely.
As I bounce between online chats, software I’m writing on one computer and 25 different browser windows and checking the movie I downloaded because it was out of print and none of the rental places had a copy when I realized this book could have been written about me. This book is suppose to be science fiction and the character is suppose to be fanciful yet I am doing much of what the character in the book is doing. Wow, I didn’t realize my life could be the basis for a science fiction novel. But maybe the “truth is stranger than fiction” adage is true.
I live in a house that I basically got for free by using my credit cards to buy it in a repossession auction and renting out the other two apartments of the triplex. I exist in a virtual world having several Instant Messenger accounts, blogs, websites and a cell phone. My physical mail goes to one of 3 addresses and is forwarded to where I happen to be at the time. I create at least one new business model or invention everyday and file them away because I don’t have time to pursue them. I hang out with models, movie stars and talk with technology luminaries such as Eric S. Raymond and Bruce Schnerier on a daily basis. A lot of this happens because I structured my life so that I didn’t have to be in one particular place at a particular time. If someone invited me to do something I would say yes and do it.
What I have done is escape the limits of time and space. That is very sci-fi.
I don’t exactly recommend my life style for everyone. There are lots of advantages and disadvantages, but that is the nature of beta software. Pick and choose elements that work for you. The big concept to grasp is there are lots of other ways of doing things. Even what you might believe is out of the realm of possibility could be normal for someone else, and for you if you choose.
Action Items:
- Download a podcast of an NPR program and while listening to the show Google for topics mentioned and read about details not covered.
- Try pausing the audio while reading, or rewinding if you miss something, and try just keeping up.
- Make a list of things you have done or could do that benefit the world as a whole and you can’t easily sell.
Predictive Innovation Training
Predictive Innovation: Core Skills Book
RoundSquareTriangle.com