The ways in which human activities interact with the water cycle can have devastating consequences for all forms of life. These range from the very large scale - for example, the effects of the movement of large volumes of water in a tsunami - to the molecular scale and the ability of water to dissolve solids, such as agricultural fertilisers (Figure 1).
Much of this course is devoted to exploring the smallest water particle - a water molecule - what it is and how it gives rise to the particular properties of water. You will be introduced to the use of powers of ten and scientific notation, which give a convenient way of expressing both very large and very small numbers. There is a video sequence to watch during your study of this course.
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