• Question: When you are fully under the water are you actually wet?

    Asked by to Kieren, Rowena, Roy on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by , , .
    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Definitionally, yes – because wet means covered with liquid. On the other hand, we can pour acetone on ourselves, which is a liquid, but feels dry, so there is a subjective/experience-based element to the concept of wetness which is not in the definition. You don’t “feel” wet when fully under the water because your skin is no longer recognising the difference between contact with air (normal) and water (strange). Water is the new normal.

    • Photo: Roy Adkin

      Roy Adkin answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Mercury metal is a liquid…if you put your hand in it your hand does not become wet…yet it is still ‘covered in liquid’…
      Wetness as far as water is concerned is as a result of the interaction of the water molecule to the surface of the thing that is being covered in water. If the thing being covered in water has a surface with a charge on it ( positive or negative) or has molecules that have a polar end (it has slightly positive of slightly negative areas) then the dipole of the water will be able to ‘stick’ like a rubbed balloon to a ceiling. If this happens then the thing can be said to be wet…our skin is covered in such ‘polar’ ended molecules so we do get wet. How about a duck?..that dives down under water…but the water rolls off when it surfaces…it’s feathers don’t get wet.

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