Chemistry quiz - What's the correct chemical NAME for water?

Dihydrogen Monooxide

Not Di-Hydrous Oxide or Di-Hyrogen Oxide nor Di-Hydrogen Oxygen?

don't think so ...think i am correct...:-)

Wilso is a Uni chemistry student. He may have some idea (don't PM him though, wait till he comes here). There are another couple of chemists in here but I can't remember who they are.

It is oxidized hydrogen.

In industrial chemistry, we call water . . . water. Otherwise, my guess would be simply "hydrogen oxide"; this is based on analogy with deuterium oxide, also known as "heavy water". (deuterium = hydrogen with an extra neutron)

Seem to recall Hydrogen Hydroxide

Hydrogen hydroxide makes the most sense. Those are the component ions.

The correct chemical name for water is
"water".

At least that's what we called it in the chemistry classes I took.

Unfortunately 1) Water is the common or colloquial name - not the chemical name and 2) if you include isotopes there are over 100 different waters!

If you are interested http://www.todayinsci.com/stories/story017b.htm

hydrogen hydroxide is my first choice. Water is my 2nd choice and hecht 2 oh third choice (the first h is silent) Hydrogen oxide is forth, the precedent being hydrogen peroxide. Neil

g__day, I stand by my suggestion.

1) The word water is not "colloquial". (Look up the words 'water' and 'colloquial' if you don't believe me.) Water is the word used in almost all formal scientific reports.

That it is common does not make it any less correct, for example the words "lung" and "star" are both correct scientific words that are used in common speech. Water is the technical word that is used in formal research.

2) None of the other suggestions given differentiate between the isotopes of the atoms. Other than "heavy water" I have never needed to worry about isotopes.

3) If you use any term for water other than "water" or "H2O" in any group of scientists you will be laughed at.

Scientists tend to be annoyed by sciolism.

How 'bout hydrohydroxic acid?

ebrown_p

You'd certainly have more chance of being served what you wanted if you asked for plain water rather than a hrydous oxide or any of the other ten names suggested so far.

But similar to the way air isn't a chemical name for the stuck we breathe water isn't a chemical name IMHO. A chemical name has chemicals in it, and you can't called Potassium Nitrate by its old name Saltpeter or Quick salt and expect that to be considered a chemical name (by me).

Quite the contrary. Water *is* a chemical.

Potassium is the name of an *element*, and "Nitrate" is the name of an ion. Potassium nitrate of course is a salt (made of a Potassium ion combined with a Nitrate ion).

Water is the chemical name of a "molecule". There are many other examples of molecules that have distinct names (that are neither elements or ions). Methane and Ethyl Alchohol are a couple of examples.

"Water" is the proper name for a chemical (which happens to be a molecule). It is as much a "chemical name" as any of the other terms we have been throwing around.

Chemists get to decide what is the proper chemical name for each chemical. I promise you chemists all use the term water pretty exclusively for the chemical we are discussing.

Of course you can call it whatever you would like. But you shouldn't go around telling chemists that the name they use isn't "proper" just because it doesn't sound like a chemical to you.

Boring but true answer: None of the ~20 chemists I know say anything else but "water".

The interesting answer is given in the FAQ of the authoritive website on this dangerous, lethal substance, dhmo.org. "Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the unstable radical Hydroxide, the components of which are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol. "

e-brown is correct. If I was to give it a chemical name based on it's formula, I'd say dihydrogen oxide.

But I'd be wrong. Its "water".

That actually talks about the isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, and the number of possible "waters" theoretically possible, by the construction of those various isotopes. But what do they call water that is made up using deutirium (an isotope of hydrogen that contains a neutron)? Heavy water! It's still water! And most of those isotopes are man made in any case.