Why is water at room temperature liquid?

From a chemistry perspective, it's all about intermolecular forces. Water has particularly strong hydrogen bonds (about 5-10% the strength of covalent bonds) that require more energy to break than the van der Waals forces in similar molecules. This means water needs more thermal energy (higher temperature) to become a gas. What's fascinating is that this hydrogen bonding also explains water's other unique properties: High surface tension (bugs can walk on water) High specific heat (oceans moderate climate) Lower density as solid* (ice floats)Nature really optimized water for supporting life through these molecular interactions. If you want to dive deeper, the American Chemical Society has great educational resources on water chemistry.

Water is liquid at room temperature because of hydrogen bonding between its molecules. Here's the science:Water molecules (H₂O) are polar - the oxygen atom is slightly negative, and the hydrogen atoms are slightly positive. This creates hydrogen bonds between adjacent water molecules. These bonds are strong enough to keep the molecules close together (like a liquid) but weak enough to allow movement (unlike a solid).Most similar-sized molecules (like H₂S - hydrogen sulfide) are gases at room temperature because they lack hydrogen bonding. Water's unique bonding gives it unusually high boiling point for its molecular weight. This is actually crucial for life on Earth - if water behaved "normally," it would boil at around -80°C and Earth would have no liquid water!