Mickey Mouse Goes to the Waterpark By Steven Glover and Brian Russell

That’s okay, I’m Russell. Are you going to the water park too? Oops, sorry for bumping into you Yes I am, do you want to come with me? That sounds great!

Did you know that it takes 2 gallons of water just to brush your teeth? Wow! How many gallons do you think are in this pool Mickey? Let’s see… 50 feet times 25 feet and since waters density is 1.00, Wait, what is density? Waters density is how tightly packed together it’s molecules are. Since your tube’s density is less than water’s density, it floats. That makes sense now!

Wow Mickey it’s a really hot day today! That’s because of waters specific heat. Specific heat? Yes, specific heat. Specific heat is the amount of energy needed to heat up an object. Why does that matter to us? Since water has a very high specific heat, it takes longer to heat up and cool down. This means that waters temperature hardly changes more than 5 degrees Celsius in one day. And since 75% of the earth is made up of water, water keeps our worlds climate in check.

Mickey and Russell decided to go for a swim. When Russell asked how water could stick together and form a pool, Mickey told him that this was called cohesion and it happens because of waters polarity. A water molecule looks a lot like Mickey Mouse’s head. The two ears are hydrogen atoms, and the main part is an oxygen atom. Where Mickey's chin would be, there is a negative charge, and on the top of his head, there is a positive charge. The negative charge really wants to combine with the positive charge. This forms a chain of water molecules. Its almost like they are playing follow the leader!

OH, NOOO Russell noticed that the packets of Kool-Aid the Kool-Aid man had in his pockets had dissolved. When he asked Mickey about this, Mickey said that the reason the Kool-Aid had dissolved was due to waters solubility. He said that water was even known as the universal solvent, which means it dissolves more substances than any other liquid.

This is why a sponge soaks up water even when its upside down. “Oh no” said Russell, “someone dropped a piece of paper into the water!” “That’s okay” said Mickey, “It looks like it’s a blank sheet.” Russell noticed that the water was still spreading upwards on the paper even when it was upside down. Mickey told him that the reason for this was capillary action. Capillary action is when water rises up a hole filled surface. The reason for this is a combination of adhesion, - or water sticking to another polar object – cohesion, and surface tension. Surface tension is the reason why the top layer of a body of water looks like it has a coating on it.

“Hey Russell, Did you know that it takes gallons of water to take a shower.” said Mickey “Or that only 3% of the earth’s water is drinkable.” “Oh no Mickey,” said Russell “It’s starting to rain!” Mickey and Russell took off towards the indoor portion of the water park. “Curse you water cycle!”

“Mickey, I heard you say something about the water cycle and I remembered that we are learning about the water cycle in school right now.” “Oh really,” said Mickey “Isn’t it really cool Russell?” “Yes it is, I learned that when its raining, snowing, or hailing, It’s called precipitation. I also learned that when water comes up to the clouds it is called evaporation. Another thing that I learned is that when clouds form it is called condensation.”

“I really think we have bonded today Mickey” said Russell, “Which reminds me, what is a hydrogen bond?” Mickey explained it to him, “I like to think of it as Velcro, it holds the two water molecules together.”

Did you know? Water expands when frozen. About 75% of the human body is made of water. Goodbye Mickey! Goodbye Russell!