put ice into a glass,when it melts it doesnt affect the water level,y does global warming cause rising sea lev

Question

If you put a block of ice into a glass of water, when it melts it doesnt affect the water level.why does melting ice caps cause rising sea levels?

Answer 1

The melted ice cube does affect the water level. Global warming is causing the sea level to rise because the polar ice caps are melting and adding to the amount of liquid in the sea.

Answer 2

If you have some water in a glass, mark the level with a pen and add ice, wait till it melts and then look again there will be more water in the glass and the level will be higher. If the polar icecaps start breaking off and melt into the sea then the sea will rise. There is mountains of frozen water at the North and South Pole One third above and two thirds below.

Answer 3

OK HERE GOES.
Look at an iceberg an you will observe that a portion of it sticks up out of the water/sea ..ok, now the portion of the iceberg that is above the sea melts and this melting ice trickles down into the sea and takes up space,room, volume which ever word you choose the melted ice turns to liquid which is called water ..the more water entering the sea the higher the sea rises and thus the sea level rises and submerges low lying land .The same happens when huge areas of ice on land stars to melt and turns into running water and flowes into the sea also thus rising the sea level.
try this ,pour some water into a container and the mark the level the water is at in the container .Now put your closed fist into this container and place it into the water and notice as you are putting more of your fist into the water the level of the water in the container rises ..so melting water causs the same as it enters the sea.
Holland in europe is at great risk to global warming as most of the land mass known as holland is very flat and if the sea level continues to rise ,quite a lot of holland will be lost to the sea

Answer 4

When a block of ice in a glass of water melts, water level actually decrease because density of ice is less than its liquid form. Do not confuse this with global warming which would cause rising of sea level. When ice in polar caps melts, sea level would rise especially in other parts of the world (because it would then be distributed to other seas, not only in the polar region). Added volume would come from ice on land and ice that floats in the polar region.

Answer 5

When an ice cube melts in a glass it is usually so small a change in the water level that you can't notice it. Although if you have an ice cube in a glass filled to the rim, as it melts it will overflow. (just a little).

With global warming there is a TON of ice melting, so it's a noticible difference in sea level (although I've never noticed it.)

By the way, ice is less dense than water (meaning both that it floats and that there's more molecules of water in a cube of water than in a cube of ice the exact same size.)

Hydrogen bonding (which you may or may not have learned about yet) locks the molecules in a set hexagonal shape (hence the 6-sided snowflakes) which creates a ring-like structure with empty space in the middle. When it melts, the molecules are free to move around and they don't have that empty space.

Answer 6

Displacement. The weight of the ice cubes causes the level of water to rise anyway so when it melts you still have the same amount of water because the ice is no longer displacing it and has just mixed in with the rest of the water.

For your theory to (excuse the pun) hold any water it would mean that if the ice melts the level of water would go down and it doesn't.

Put some ice cubes in a glass on their own and then tell me that there is no water in there when they melt and you might have had a point.

As for the global warming bit. You may have something. Most of the ice that is melting is already floating in water so displacement has already happened but as someone else says some of it is actually on land and not causing displacement of the seas so when that melts as it is doing at a colossal rate the level of the sea will rise. Also I think it has something to do with salt levels in sea water compared to the lack of salt in the water from the ice affecting water temperature and currents... or something.

Answer 7

All of these answers relate to floating ice, which is irrelevant to the sea-level debate. The rise of sea levels is related to continental ice, in Greenland, and mainly Antarctica. This ice is supported on land, not floating on the sea.

Try this experiment: place a flat object in the middle of a saucer to raise the centre level, and place a lump of ice on that. Fill the saucer to the brim with water. Now let the ice melt; you'll notice the water soon overflows.

Rises and falls of sea level with ice sheet growth is well documaented, it's not just a new "global warming" idea. During the last major glacial advance sea levels were about 100m or more lower than today.

Answer 8

i thought that if you put an ice cube in a glass of water and record the level of the water, and then record it again when the ice has melted, the level will have gone down due to ice being less dense than water. (the water expanded when it froze so takes up less volume when melted)

with regards to global warming making sea levels rise, there are parts on earth where ice is up to a mile thick. there is far more ice above sea level that will melt and cause sea levels to rise

Answer 9

Actually a melted ice cube will change the water levels of the glass. The reason you may not notice it or the change is very slight is that a glass will condensate (its how the outside of a dry glass of soda will become wet when left out in the heat). Unfortunately the amount of condensation the earth can take is quite limited (global warming is linked to floods because condensation leads to rainfall) so when condensation stops the water level rises in massive levels. Try your experiment in a thermal cup and see what happens these tend to have less condensation than regular plastic cups or glasses and you should get better results.

Answer 10

The continental ice addition is only part of the reason why sea level is rising due to global warming.
As water gets warmer it expands a little, but since there is such a lot of water in the oceans this has a big effect on the overall sea-level.
This 'thermal expansion' of the oceans has been measured to contribute to half of the rising trend over the past 50 years, and is anticipated to have the same contribution in the future.