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Among the unusual properties of water, it is difficult to ignore one more thing: its exceptionally high surface tension is 0.073 N / m (at 20 ° C). Of all liquids, only mercury has a higher surface tension. It manifests itself in the fact that water constantly tends to pull, reduce its surface, although it always takes the form of the container in which it is at the moment. Water only seems to be formless, spreading over any surface. The surface tension force forces the molecules of its outer layer to adhere, creating an elastic outer film. The properties of the film are also determined by closed and open hydrogen bonds, associates of different structure and different degrees of ordering. Thanks to the film, some objects, being heavier than water, do not submerge in water (for example, carefully laid flat steel needle). Many insects (water cannels, springtails, etc.) not only move on the surface of the water, but take off from it and sit down, as on a solid support. Moreover, living beings have adapted to use even the inner side of the water surface. Mosquito larvae hang on it with the help of non-wetted bristles, and small snails - pond snails and coils - creep along it in search of prey.
The high surface tension allows the water to take a spherical shape with free fall or in a state of weightlessness: this geometric shape has a minimal surface for a given volume.
A jet of chemically pure water of 1 cm2 section in tensile strength is not inferior to steel of the same cross section. The water jet, as it were, cement the surface tension force. The behavior of water in the capillaries is subject to more complex physical patterns. Saint-Gyorgyi noted that structurally ordered layers of water near a solid surface appear in narrow capillaries. Structuring extends into the depth of the liquid phase by a layer thickness of the order of tens and hundreds of molecules (previously it was assumed that the ordering is limited only by the monomolecular layer of water adjacent to the surface). The peculiarities of structuring water in capillary systems allow us to speak with certain grounds about the capillary state of water. In natural conditions, this state can be observed in so-called pore water. In the form of a thin film, it covers the surface of cavities, pores, cracks in rocks and minerals of the earth's crust. The developed intermolecular contacts with the surface of solids, the features of structural ordering, are probably the reason why pore water freezes at a lower temperature than the usual - free - water. Studies have shown that when freezing of bound water, not only changes in its properties are manifested, but also the properties of those rocks with which it directly comes into contact.