Solved cryptogram
A water molecule is bent rather than straight, and nearly everything odd about water follows.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to OpenStax, Rice University.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 77 letters over 20 different ones, graded hard.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
Two hydrogens on one oxygen could have been arranged in a line. They are not, because the oxygen also carries two pairs of electrons that take up room and push the hydrogens down to an angle near one hundred and five degrees. That asymmetry leaves one end of the molecule slightly positive and the other slightly negative, and a molecule with two ends sticks to its neighbors. Ice floating, water dissolving so much, and rain forming beads all trace back to that angle.
The claim comes from OpenStax, Rice University.
- SourceOpenStax, Rice University
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultyhard
- Length77 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveyhard, 73 letters
- University of Calgaryhard, 69 letters
- NIST Chemistry WebBookhard, 77 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 73 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 73 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 75 letters