Is LAVA wet?

[Just_a_Fan he/him]

"is water wet" has been done to death with the only real outcome being it's in a state of both being wet and not being wet at the same time.

here's something new; "Is lava wet?"

Discuss.

[Mattel]

Gahhh why must you start another war?!

Welp here we go.

Lava does not contain any water molecules, I don't even think it has any Hydrogen to form water molecules, and so lacks the ability to be wet, since we agreed previously that water is wet. Yes, lava can be viscous and can be considered a liquid, but I don't think I would ever consider what is essentially a physical form of fire to be wet.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

Wow.

Just wow.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

Sometimes. If steam is coming off of the lava, it is wet until it stops steaming.

[NameIess]

On 11/30/2024 at 2:27 PM, Mattel said:

Gahhh why must you start another war?!

Welp here we go.

Lava does not contain any water molecules, I don't even think it has any Hydrogen to form water molecules, and so lacks the ability to be wet, since we agreed previously that water is wet. Yes, lava can be viscous and can be considered a liquid, but I don't think I would ever consider what is essentially a physical form of fire to be wet.

I think there's a serious problem with assuming that something needs to be water in order to get things wet. There are lots of liquids (ethanol, to name one) that can get one wet and yet are not water. So the real question is not whether it contains water but whether it is liquid-y enough to qualify as wet and whether or not water is wet.

[Immortal Platypus]

On 11/30/2024 at 9:40 AM, Just_a_Fan said:

"is water wet" has been done to death with the only real outcome being it's in a state of both being wet and not being wet at the same time.

here's something new; "Is lava wet?"

Discuss.

a) the outcome was that water, by definition, is wet

b) it depends. if lava is liquid enough to qualify as "liquid" than it would meet the definition of wet

On 11/30/2024 at 12:27 PM, Mattel said:

Lava does not contain any water molecules, I don't even think it has any Hydrogen to form water molecules, and so lacks the ability to be wet, since we agreed previously that water is wet. Yes, lava can be viscous and can be considered a liquid, but I don't think I would ever consider what is essentially a physical form of fire to be wet.

just because one thing is wet doesn't mean that all things that are wet must contain that one thing. For example, rocks can be wet, but not all wet things must have rocks. I personally would say that lava is not liquid enough to count as "liquid" and is therefore not wet.

[Cash67]

On 11/30/2024 at 10:40 AM, Just_a_Fan said:

"is water wet" has been done to death with the only real outcome being it's in a state of both being wet and not being wet at the same time.

here's something new; "Is lava wet?"

Discuss.

No. Just as melted steel ain't wet, neither is melted rock. 

EDIT: Alternitavely, water benders can't bend lava, but earthbenders can. 

Edited December 12, 2024 by Ookla the Rich
edit

[Immortal Platypus]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Rich said:

No. Just as melted steel ain't wet, neither is melted rock. 

EDIT: Alternitavely, water benders can't bend lava, but earthbenders can. 

I mean... if melted steel met the qualifications of "liquid" than by definition it might be

[NameIess]

3 hours ago, Ookla the Rich said:

No. Just as melted steel ain't wet, neither is melted rock. 

EDIT: Alternitavely, water benders can't bend lava, but earthbenders can. 

Water benders can’t bend ethanol. Is ethanol wet?

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

Lava is wet

[Mattel]

Oof. Yeah I am realizing just now (far too late) that I made a terrible argument. This is personally offending me so I must go atone by hiking to Urithiru on a pilgrimage. I will return after I hide in my basement writing a book.

I do not think lava can be wet because:

What is lava? Lava is rock that has been melted into a form similar to a liquid. If you cool it off it turns into a solid because that's its normal form at room temperature. So I think we agreed on the other forum that rock is not wet itself, it requires some sort of liquid to mix with it so that it then feels wet. So if you melt a completely dry rock it is in theory still dry. I can already tell people might say well if you melt the rock, the dry rock then becomes a liquid and we agreed (sort of) that liquids are wet. But this isn't how that works. It is an illogical leap to connect those two together, I think.

[BlueWildRye he/him]

The only way to find out if lava is wet is to go find some lava and touch it.

[NameIess]

23 hours ago, Mattel said:

Oof. Yeah I am realizing just now (far too late) that I made a terrible argument. This is personally offending me so I must go atone by hiking to Urithiru on a pilgrimage. I will return after I hide in my basement writing a book.

I do not think lava can be wet because:

What is lava? Lava is rock that has been melted into a form similar to a liquid. If you cool it off it turns into a solid because that's its normal form at room temperature. So I think we agreed on the other forum that rock is not wet itself, it requires some sort of liquid to mix with it so that it then feels wet. So if you melt a completely dry rock it is in theory still dry. I can already tell people might say well if you melt the rock, the dry rock then becomes a liquid and we agreed (sort of) that liquids are wet. But this isn't how that works. It is an illogical leap to connect those two together, I think.

Assuming that the room temperature of the earth was below 0 degrees Celsius, then the base state of water would be ice, a solid that is not wet unless melted. Can we then say that because ice is not wet, water is not wet?

[Immortal Platypus]

On 12/16/2024 at 3:54 PM, Mattel said:

What is lava? Lava is rock that has been melted into a form similar to a liquid. If you cool it off it turns into a solid because that's its normal form at room temperature. So I think we agreed on the other forum that rock is not wet itself, it requires some sort of liquid to mix with it so that it then feels wet. So if you melt a completely dry rock it is in theory still dry. I can already tell people might say well if you melt the rock, the dry rock then becomes a liquid and we agreed (sort of) that liquids are wet. But this isn't how that works. It is an illogical leap to connect those two together, I think.

I would need more explanation on why that is illogical. By definition, any liquid would be wet. The definition of "wet" from Merriam-Webster: "consisting of, containing, covered with, or soaked with liquid (such as water). If we can agree that melted rock meets the qualifications of "liquid," than by definition, it would be wet. Melting (as defined by the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary) is "the change or process of changing from a solid substance to a liquid." Therefore, if you melt rock to make lava, that would make the rock a liquid, meaning that the liquid rock is wet.

[Through the Living Wrath he/him]

On 12/16/2024 at 9:56 PM, Ookla Rye said:

The only way to find out if lava is wet is to go find some lava and touch it.

Are you volunteering?

On 12/17/2024 at 6:21 PM, Ookla the Arbiter said:

I would need more explanation on why that is illogical. By definition, any liquid would be wet. The definition of "wet" from Merriam-Webster: "consisting of, containing, covered with, or soaked with liquid (such as water). If we can agree that melted rock meets the qualifications of "liquid," than by definition, it would be wet. Melting (as defined by the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary) is "the change or process of changing from a solid substance to a liquid." Therefore, if you melt rock to make lava, that would make the rock a liquid, meaning that the liquid rock is wet.

yes. This ^^^^^^^ I agree.

LAVA IS WET

[BlueWildRye he/him]

2 hours ago, Ookla the Dragonslayer said:

Are you volunteering?

If I ever get a chance, yes.