Why is water an universal solvent?

Answer 1

Water softens and helps to dissolve most anything quickly or over time. Available to everyone in most (not all) locations, it can usually be used safely to clean a wide variety of "surfaces". Here are just some items that water can clean quite well:

• the human skin
• the mouth or other mucous membranes
• the teeth
• the hands
• dishes
• eating utensils
• cooking pots and pans
• cook stoves
• stuck-on food particles
• wash basins, tubs, showers
• toilets, even if the "toilet" is a bucket
• household surfaces
• wood, metal, stone
• most painted surfaces
• clothing and most fabrics
• automobiles, trucks, farm machinery
• farm implements and tools
• paint brushes used with Latex paints (not oil-based)
• hard-cover books, but soft-cover books would need to have less moisture applied
• applications of water during the manufacturing process

Answer 2

Water is considered as universal solvent because :

• it exist in all three states of matter i.e solid ,liquid , gas.
• it can almost dissolve all solutes including all ions in it .

Answer 3

Water is only a quasi-universal solvent. The chemical and physical properties of water are very suitable for a good solvent. Water is not totally universal. Many glues don't disolve in water, but they do in petrol (gasoline).
this is because water dissolves a lot of substances except oil,etc... likes dissolves likes, polar substances dissolves polar substances and most of the things here in the world are made up of polar substances.

Answer 4

Water is the universal solvent because it can dissolve many different things. Other liquids are not capable of dissolving as many substances.

Answer 5

water is called as the universal solvent bcoz it is the only solution which dissolve other solvents