2006-09-02 06:27:09 · 23 answers · asked by Guy H 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
in theory, yes. if you continually break something down, it gets smaller and never completely disappears, all of the small parts still add up to the sum of the original size.
HOWEVER, lol, ice melts and unless you had some kinda really advanced way of cutting the ice so that you dont lose all the little shavings, and make sure none of it melts, it would be pretty much impossible to do that kind of experiment. it would just crumble and melt.
2006-09-02 06:31:01 · answer #1 · answered by hellion210 6 · 1⤊ 3⤋
The practical limits to an experiment designed to investigate this question would involve surface area and thermodynamic equilibrium.
As you subdivide the chunks, the ratio of surface area (constantly increasing) to mass (held constant) increases without bound.
Surface transport phenomena would come to dominate over the bulk properties of the ice long before you started worrying about separating water molecules.
Assuming you carried the experiment out at sub-freezing temperatures; sublimation, not melting, would be the ultimate limiting process. Water molecules constantly transitioning back and forth between the solid and gaseous phases would blur the identity of the "chunks".
2006-09-02 08:00:49 · answer #2 · answered by Fred S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, eventually you would break it down to a subatomic level and at that point it would no longer be an ice cube but a collection of subatomic particles.
2006-09-02 07:05:41 · answer #3 · answered by jetfighter 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, if it was in absolute zero temperature with no moisture for it to melt. It'd be equivalent to a rock which could be broken into sediment and particles and broken down more and more and more. But you really can't split an atom, so I think that's where the process would stop.
2006-09-02 06:48:14 · answer #4 · answered by Katt Attack 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You Couldn't Forever Because It Might: Melt Or It Will Get To Small The Break Down.
2006-09-02 06:29:27 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
you could divide an ice, until you're left with a single hexagonal ice structure (Ih), or a single molecule (solid water aka ice), or single atom (hidrogen or oxygen), or a single subatom (electron or proton or neutron) or a single quarks
no you can't since we are currently unable to divide quarks.
2006-09-02 22:21:07 · answer #6 · answered by Lie Ryan 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When it comes to Chem. and Elements..the answer is no. But in theory, the human technological limit can only "see" so far as in microscopes etc... so the technology does not exist yet to cut it so far...so physically speaking, the answer is NO..but in theory it is yes because even the elements have to be made of something...we just don't have the technology or the "HOW" to explain it.
2006-09-02 06:32:19 · answer #7 · answered by cbg_mx 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Would depend on the tempature of where the ice is being broke, wouldn't it? warm room, the ice would melt, freezing, the ice wouldn't melt....please give better details, so we know what to work with next time.
Thanks a million
2006-09-02 06:31:23 · answer #8 · answered by whydiduaskthis? 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
No, eventually there would be no bonding molecules left in the ice, therefore creating the smallest piece of ice.
2006-09-02 06:28:46 · answer #9 · answered by Stan the answer Man 3 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Eventually the pieces would reach the size of a water molecule, after which you wouldn't be able to break them anymore because they would no longer be ice.
2006-09-02 06:29:04 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋