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This will occur because most oils (especially cooking oils) are less dense than water. So when poured into water they will stay separate and on top. When water is poured into oil it will sink to the bottom instead of float on top.

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13y ago
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10y ago

Water molecules tend to stick together, because water is a polar molecule. What does polar mean? Well, the hydrogen atoms in a water molecule have a slightly positive charge, and the oxygen atom has a slightly negative change, giving the molecule two electric "poles." So the water molecules like to stick together, like very very weak magnets, which is called cohesion. This cohesion makes the water bead up instead of spreading out. Oil is not a polar molecule, so it does not experience cohesion, so its molecules have no problem spreading out.

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15y ago

oil will spread till a mono-molecular layer is formed on the surface of water

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12y ago

Water is a polar and most oils are non polar so they do not bind together. Because they do not bind and the oil is less dense than water it spreads over the surface.

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12y ago

That is because there is not much attraction between the oil and the water. This, in turn, is due to the differences between oil and water: water is polar, oil is not.

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11y ago
oil is lighter so it floats on the water. as it is not in viscous state it spreads
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10y ago

Oil is lighter than water, so it floats. Since it is not in a viscous state, it spreads.

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Q: Why a thin film of oil spread over water while water do not spread over oil?
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