system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why doesn't water become more viscous as it approaches freezing?

As I study for a biochem midterm coming up, the properties of water have totally piqued my interest. I understand that in ice, water forms four hydrogen bonds creating its crystalline structure, and as the temperature exceeds the freezing point some of the bonds sort of fall apart. But then my book says that a "majority of the H bonds in H20 survive the transition from solid to liquid."

So then why the heck is liquid water uniformly the same viscosity across a wide range of temperatures as the amount of h bonds change?

Hell vodka gets thick as it passes below freezing! im scratching my head at this one. Im genuinely curious!
gpt
Actually, water near the freezing point is almost 6 times more viscous than water near the boiling point. Try the following experiment:

- Take two similar pots, fill them with equal amounts of water.

- Put one pot in the refrigerator.

- Put the other on the stove and bring it just shy of boiling.

- Now place the pots next to each other, and tap lightly on the side of each pot. Compare the amount of tiny ripples, and how quickly those ripples disperse...you'll definitely see a difference.