Question

who is stronger-
water or rocks? Justify your answers​

Answer 1

Explanation:

Rock is strong. But water is stronger.” That’s something that Rebecca Solnit once said to a small group of friends along the banks of the Colorado River with Holiday River Expeditions. Solnit was doing what she does best: distilling one of the core truths in the natural world into an inspiring, poetic metaphor that could be applied to all kinds of situations.

In this particular case, the metaphor was for a birthday song honoring our favorite river-runner, Lauren Wood. But Solnit could have easily been referring to the power of social movements, how with enough volume and time they can wear away at the bedrock of social convention and the craggy cliffs of the repressive state. She could have been talking about the thriving wildlife in Chernobyl and how life finds a way to persist even when we throw our heaviest boulders in its path.

Or, Solnit could have just been referring to the incredible, literal phenomenon of erosion; the way that water tears apart mountains and carves out canyons. When you look at the path of the Colorado River it’s incredible, but also obvious, to see how its waters have pushed through all of those beautiful layers of rock to form its many canyons.

But there’s also a more subtle, and chilling, way that water has helped to form the Colorado River’s pathway.

The Aluminum Can Experiment

Desolation Overhead

Have you ever thrown a warm La Croix into the freezer to chill on a hot summer’s day? Have you ever forgotten then to take said La Croix out of the freezer? If so, you’ll know well how powerful H2O molecules can be when they expand.

I know the science may seem basic for some of you, but for me, who flunked all of my high school science classes, a refresher is helpful. This is from Sciencing.com: “As the water gets colder, its molecules slow down and arrange themselves such that gaps exist between groups of molecules. As they get colder, the molecules form hexagonal patterns that eventually become snowflakes and related crystals.”

These gaps between the water molecules make the substance expand, which is why your aluminum La Croix can exploded in the freezer. But freezing water can do more than burst a thin soda can. As Sciencing.com explains, “the pressure exerted