In 1807 the English chemist Humphry Davy passed an electric current through molten potassium hydroxide and isolated a bright, shiny reactive substance. He claimed the discovery of a new element, which he named potassium. In those days, before the advent of modern instruments, what was the basis on which one could claim that a substance was an element?

the best answer is d because the strong cohesion is caused by the ability of water molecules to undergo hydrogen bonding.

a is incorrect because when water solidifies, it becomes   ice, which expands and occupies a bigger volume for the same mass of water in its liquid state.

b is incorrect because water has high surface tension. besides bonding to itself it hydrogen bonds to other molecules at the top decreasing possibility for breaking of attractive forces.

c is incorrect because the water molecule has oxygen which is highly electronegative and so pulls the electron pair towards itself creating a dipole moment, making the molecule polar.

e is incorrect because water has strong adhesion, ability to stick to other molecules such as glass because of this molecules having stronger hydrogen bonding than water.

a electronegativity decreases beacuse the size of nucleus is bigger.

the formula mass of a molecule or a compound is the sum of the atomic weights of the atoms in its empirical formula

(that's what i know about formula mass)