Why water matters for life: cohesion, adhesion, heat and ice
Grade 9 Science Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.
model data, two towns at the same latitude. Ren compares two towns at the same latitude. Which town has the milder year, and why?
- The far inland town; the land shields it from the wind off the sea
- The town near the sea; nearby water heats and cools quickly because of its high specific heat
- The town near the sea; nearby water heats and cools slowly because of its high specific heat
- The far inland town; the land heats and cools slowly because of its high specific heat
Tala reads how ice thickens on a pond. Which claim and reason explain why the ice grows more slowly each day?
- The ice grows more slowly, because the pond is running out of water
- The ice grows more slowly, because the ice on top insulates the water below
- The ice grows more slowly, because the air warms up each day
- The ice grows more slowly, because new ice is denser and sinks away from the top
Read this first
Use this
Investigation card. Question: Does a coin hold more water drops on its heads side or its tails side? Changed: which side of the coin faces up. Measured: drops added with a dropper before the dome of water spills. Kept the same: the dropper, the water, the table. Results table: Side | Coin used | Drops before spilling; heads | dime | 14; tails | penny | 20. model data.
A dome of water on a coin is held by cohesion. Zee reads this class test. How should the test be fixed?
- Count the drops after the water spills, not before
- Use a bigger dropper on the tails side
- Use colder water for the tails side
- Use the same coin for both sides, so only the side changes
Use this
Investigation card. Question: Does the kind of paper change how high water climbs a dipped strip? Changed: the kind of paper. Measured: how many centimeters the water climbed in 5 minutes. Kept the same: strip width of 2 cm, the cup, the water, the time. Results table: Paper | Dipped depth (cm) | Climb (cm); paper towel | 1 | 7; printer paper | 3 | 3. model data.
Ari reads a test of water climbing paper strips. What is the flaw in the test?
- The water should have been warmer for the printer paper
- The time was too short for the water to climb
- The strips were dipped to different depths, so depth changed too
- The strips were cut to different widths, so width changed too
Use this
Investigation card. Question: Which warms more under a lamp, water or sand? Changed: the material. Measured: the temperature rise after 5 minutes. Kept the same: the lamp, its distance, the start temperature. Results table: Material | Mass (g) | Rise (°C); water | 400 | 4; sand | 100 | 12. model data.
Bo reads a lamp test on water and sand. What is the flaw in the test?
- The masses differed, so the rises cannot be compared fairly
- The start temperatures should have been different
- Water has a high specific heat, so it should have warmed more
- The lamp should have been closer to the water
Esme reads that a tub of water took in 2,400 calories and warmed from 15 °C to 21 °C. At 1 calorie per gram per °C, what mass is the water?
- 114 g
- 400 g
- 2,400 g
- 14,400 g
A 100 g sample takes in 600 calories and warms 30 °C, Kira reads. Water needs 1 calorie per gram per °C; sand needs about one fifth of that. What is it?
- Sand: it needs about 0.2 calorie per gram per °C
- Water: a high specific heat means it warms the most
- Water: it needs 6 calories per gram per °C
- Sand: it needs 20 calories per gram per °C
model data, a pond in winter. Luz reads pond temperatures under the ice. The warmest water, at 4 °C, is at the bottom. Why is the warmest water at the bottom?
- Hydrogen bonds pull heat down toward the bottom
- Ice is denser than liquid water, so it sinks and pushes the warm water down
- Water near 4 °C is denser than colder water, so it sinks to the bottom
- Heat flows down from the ice, so the bottom gets the most heat
not to scale. In a thin glass tube, Milo sees the water surface curve up at the walls, not lie flat. Why does the surface curve up?
A thin glass tube in water, not to scale. The water surface inside is higher at the walls than in the middle. A thin glass tube in water, not to scale. The water surface inside is higher at the walls than in the middle. thin glass tube water - Water is nonpolar, so it slides up the glass walls
- Water molecules are attracted to each other more than to the glass walls
- Water molecules are attracted to the glass walls more than to each other
- The glass walls are warmer than the middle of the water
“not to scale” Noah wraps a wet cloth around a thermometer bulb in a breeze. The cloth water starts at room temperature, 25 °C. The reading falls to 20 °C. Why?
A thermometer bulb wrapped in a wet cloth, not to scale, in a breeze. The water in the cloth starts at room temperature, 25 °C. The reading later falls to 20 °C. A thermometer bulb wrapped in a wet cloth, not to scale, in a breeze. The water in the cloth starts at room temperature, 25 °C. The reading later falls to 20 °C. breeze wet cloth 25 degC 20 degC - Evaporation adds heat to the bulb, so the cooling comes from the breeze itself
- Evaporation breaks covalent bonds inside the water molecules, and that takes heat
- Evaporation takes heat away from the bulb and the cloth
- The cloth water is colder than the room, so it cools the bulb