A glass of water containing a floating ice cube sits on a table. When the ice has completely melted, will the level of the water have increased, decreased or remained unchanged?
2006-12-07 22:56:49 · 34 answers · asked by Jimmy G 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
NO it Will not increase.
bcos ice submerged in water takes more space than if that submerged part of ice takes when it is water.
so on melting the ice of submerged part decrease the water level but the ice floating above the water level makes up for this volume and overall level of 'water' remains same.
this is a theoretical explanation only but the change in the level of water can be calculated using basic hydrostatics and it will give a 0 rise again!
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a great deal of people are saying that it will increase or decrease.some others are saying that it depends on amount of ice submerged.
referring to joe's explanation.its effect in glass and in sea will be same if we take in account only pure water.it will neither decrease in glass nor in sea.
and the -=Matt=-'s explanation that ice takes up more space than water so level will go down.but -=Matt=- might have forget that the deficiency of volume created by melted ice submerged in water is exactly made up by portion of ice floating above water level.
and the part submerged always has the weight equal to weight of water displaced by it so WHATEVER be the shape of ice and the source of water the compensation of portion of ice floating above water level will always be the same as the deficiency of volume created by melted ice submerged in water.
it can only be affected by impurities present in water.if the impurities make the density of water more than density of equal volume of pure ice than on melting water level will decrease and vice-versa.
I think that much explaination is enough to clear this confusion
2006-12-07 23:08:21 · answer #1 · answered by Anurag ® 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Remains unchanged.
If the ice cube is floating, it will not change the total volume as the density of the ice cube is less than that of water, so the 10% that is floating will fit nicely into the smaller volume that it can occupy.
However, if you were to put in many ice cubes such that they do not float but actually touch the bottom of the glass, then the water will overflow.
Similarly, the ice that is found in the Artic and Antarctic when melted will result in an increase in sea level because most of these ice pieces are on land and when melted, will add on to the water in the sea. Ice bergs, however, will not cause a rise in the sea level as it is floating.
2006-12-09 05:12:48 · answer #2 · answered by Kemmy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm amazed by how many people are saying the level will rise because solids are more compact than liquids - thats usually true in chemistry but not with water - that's why ice floats in the first place.
If you have a brozen block of benzene and put it in liquid benzene it will sink right to the bottom - that melting would raise the level of the benzene. Water is better at packing together in liquid form, the matrix of water molecules in ice is not very efficient in terms of space and thats why its lighter and less compact that liquid. Incidentally water gets more compact at temperatures at a maximum of about 3 degrees celsius and obviously less compact because of the imperfect stacking of molecules in the ice.
So no it certainly wont rise. It may decrease. However as ice floats you have to take account that some of it will be floating above the surface of the water. To find the truth you'd have to make sure the ice was all submerged but then melting it would DECREASE the level of the water.
regards
2006-12-08 02:53:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure how old you are, but I used to watch a kids science show years ago called Mr. Wizard (think Bill Nye the Science guy, but back in the early 80s). I distinctly remember Mr. Wizard conducting this exact experiment. He put several ice cubes in a glass and filled the glass with water until the water was at the very top of the glass. He then waited for the ice to melt in order to demonstrate the exact question you're asking. When the ice melted, the amount of water remained the same. The water did not overflow the top of the glass. The amount of water inside the glass remained constant, the portion of the water that was frozen simply changed states from ice to liquid. Try it yourself and see!
2006-12-07 23:06:24 · answer #4 · answered by FOB 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Water expands when it turns ice so a glass of water will decrease in level when the ice floating in it melts. This is different to ice caps melting causing flooding because a lot of the ice in ice caps is above the water so when it melts adds to the over all sea level.
Water is an odd one, like other substances as it cools becomes denser and denser until 4 degrees C,
then it starts expanding again.
Oh my God half of you are morons. Go take a plastic cup of water. Freeze it. Let it melt then come back and tyell me if the cup uis still full. NO. I have a drink with Ice next to me, no 1/6 is not floating above the surface!!! This is different to if it were an Ice berg but that is not what they asked.
2006-12-07 23:10:35 · answer #5 · answered by joe r 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The water level with decrease, IF you assume that the ice is fully or almost fully submerged in the water. If the ice is partly floating on top, then it would be more complicated as it would depend how much of it was floating on top.
Water takes up a greater volume as a solid than a liquid (this is an unusual property of water). Thus, when a submerged icecube melts, the water level will decrease because the resulting water will take up less space in the glass. Its the same principle as if you replace a large object submerged in water, with a smaller one.
2006-12-07 23:14:47 · answer #6 · answered by -=Matt=- 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I would say that it would stay the same as the water displacement caused by the solid of the ice would be roughly equal to the amount of water produced from the melted ice cube and therefore the level would stay the same!
2006-12-07 23:20:59 · answer #7 · answered by K 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The volume of water in the glass would remain unchanged but only if the ice cube was included in the initial volume. Just Becuase it expands or has air trapped in it, does not change the volume of water it requires unless the water evaporates. The water level may rise a little becuase part of the ice cube may float innitially above the water... but the volume of water would be exactly the same...
xCat
2006-12-07 23:07:54 · answer #8 · answered by crycan1985 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
the level must have decreased because water expands when it freezes and contracts when melts and when ice melts in water in a glass, the level of water is decreased in the glass.
also when ice melts in glass with water in it, the air bubbles trapped in it get out and thus decreasing the volume again.
2006-12-07 23:30:52 · answer #9 · answered by Jimmy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The level will rise.
The ice floats slightly above the level of the water (the same as an iceberg), as it melts it must raise the level of the water because the volume of water will increased, because as ice it only displaces a volume of water equivalent to approximately 4/5 of its water content
2006-12-07 23:17:23 · answer #10 · answered by Sue 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It depends on the temperature of the water after the ice has melted, water near freezing point takes up more space than warmer water, so if you start with near freezing water the level will not change.
2006-12-11 09:27:59 · answer #11 · answered by bo nidle 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋