• @Boddhisatva
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    242 months ago

    Harris accuses water of being wet.

    • EleventhHour
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      2 months ago

      Water is, in fact, not wet. Like any liquid, it can only make wet what it touches/soaks. Wetness is a property bestowed upon other things (primarily solid objects) which come into contact with a liquid, but not the liquid itself.

      And, no, adding water to water doesn’t result in “wet” water— just more water.

      • @Zombiepirate
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        82 months ago

        Why doesn’t “wet” count if the liquid is in contact with other liquid molecules?

        Sounds like special pleading to me.

        • EleventhHour
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          2 months ago

          Wetness is not a property which can be applied to a liquid— only a solid which has come in contact with liquid.

          Adding liquid to liquid just makes more liquid, not “wet” liquid.

          Now, I suppose there could be rare exceptions to this— if an especially viscous liquid were able to produce a surface upon which another, less viscous liquid might make contact with, then that would result in “the surface of X liquid is wetted by Y liquid”— but, even then, the property of wetness only applies to the semi-solid/liquid surface (a property similar to a solid), and not because they, say, mixed. Mixed liquid just form new liquids, compounds, etc. not “wet” ones.

          • @Zombiepirate
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            22 months ago

            That’s not a reason though, that’s just reasserting the premise.

            • EleventhHour
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              2 months ago

              The explanation was in the original comment. I simply clarified due to your misunderstanding.

              Look, this is a mix of both logic and linguistics (which isn’t always logical). Even if it doesn’t make sense to you, this is how it is. I suggest that you accept it, however, if you refuse to accept it, the next logical course of action would be to invent a new word which describes liquids touching liquids. Most would call it “a mixture“, but people like you are often unsatisfied with anything you don’t make up yourselves.

              I look forward to hearing what new word you may come up with.

              • @Zombiepirate
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                -12 months ago

                “That’s just how it is” isn’t a reason either.

                • EleventhHour
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                  2 months ago

                  To repeat: I already gave a well-defined reason in my initial comment. It’s your choice whether or not to accept it.

                  I suppose being overly contrarian and argumentative might entertain you, but I’m not going to indulge such childishness (or, perhaps, ignorance) further.

                  • @Zombiepirate
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                    02 months ago

                    Water is, in fact, not wet. Like any liquid, it can only make wet what it touches/soaks. Wetness is a property bestowed upon other things (primarily solid objects) which come into contact with a liquid, but not the liquid itself.

                    And, no, adding water to water doesn’t result in “wet” water- just more water.

                    This is just an assertion that wetness is a property only bestowed on solids. There is no reason given for this, and I have no basis to believe that it is true based on the aforementioned linguistics.

                    I refer you to the top comment: a very common English expression that “water is wet.”

        • EleventhHour
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          32 months ago

          Correct.

          This might make for a good allegory for how water isn’t wet. Strange that I hadn’t considered this before, but thanks for bringing it up!