why dose ice expand while all other things shrink when they get cold?

Answer 1

Nature is the chief engineer of the whole wide universe and because it has millions and billions of years at its disposal, its designs are almost always made to fit particular instances.
The fact that ice expands when water begins to freeze means that ice will not sink to the bottom of the water, but float on the surface. The reason? Very simple. If the ice were to sink to the bottom as the water freezes, it wouldn't take long for all the water to become a frozen mass. The consequences of this occurrence for all marine life would have been devastating; living things in these waters would be frozen to death, there would be no more fishes left each time the waters freeze. Apparently to avert this, nature has had to reverse some of her laws and make freezing water much lighter than the unfrozen one.
For your further info, when water is cooled from say room temp towards 0 deg, its density increases until it reaches a temp of 4 deg C when it reverses this trend and the density begins to decrease and continues for as long as the ice is cooled further.

Answer 2

Ice is just water in frozen state. The chemical formula of water is H20, meaning that it is made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom. An oxygen atom has electrons on it which are not paired to the hydrogen atoms. We call these electrons lone pairs of electrons.

Hence, the lone pairs of electrons will cause the oxygen atoms of 1 water molecule to form hydrogen bonds with the hydrogen atoms of another water molecule. Therefore, ice is in a 3D tetrahedral structure made of water molecules.

The water molecules are not closely packed, resulting in an "open structure" of ice.

In addition, at temperatures below 4 degree Celsius, the hydrogen bonds "expand", thus water molecules are pulled further apart. This explains the part of "open structure of ice".

Hence, the volume of ice expands. Therefore, ice expands when it gets cold.

As for other things... the atoms get closer together when in low temperatures and thus they "shrink".

Answer 3

There is a strong tendency to form a network of hydrogen bonds, where each hydrogen atom is in a line between two oxygen atoms. This hydrogen bonding tendency gets stronger as the temperature gets lower (because there is less thermal energy to shake the hydrogen bonds out of position). The ice structure is completely hydrogen bonded, and these bonds force the crystalline structure to be very "open". It is this open solid structure that causes ice to be less dense than liquid water. That is why ice floats on water, for which we should all be thankful because if water behaved "normally" many bodies of water would freeze solid in the winter, killing all the life within them. Water's "density maximum" is a product of the same phenomenon. Close to the freezing point, the water molecules start to arrange locally into ice-like structures. This creates some "openness" in the liquid water, which tends to decrease its density. This is opposed by the normal tendency for cooling to increase the density; it is at approximately 4 degrees Celsius that these opposing tendencies are balanced, producing the density maximum.

Answer 4

Wash water - warm or hot can shrink wool and other natural fibers (cotton, angora, etc.). Cotton will shrink less, but still shrink. Dryer - warm or hot dryer temperature will shrink the same garments. BUT - some thinks shrink no matter what the temperature. For example, some wool sweaters (they are called 'boiled wool') will shrink if they get wet. The fibers are really curly naturally and are combed straight to be woven. As soon as they get wet, they kink and curl up. The safest wash is cold or cool water. If you have a really delicate item, hand wash it in the sink and rinse it well. Don't twist or wring it. Lay a bath towel on the floor, lay the sweater on it neatly, then roll up the towel tightly. You can squeeze and even stand on the rolled up towel to squish a lot of water out, without stretching the garment. Then, lay it out flat on another towel until dry.

Answer 5

Ice does not expand - it shrinks once it reaches below 32 degrees farenheit.

Water expands once it chills to 34 degrees until it reaches 32 degrees. It is because the structure of ice is more open than the structure of water.

Answer 6

This happens due to the ANOMALOUS EXPANSION OF WATER. Water contracts while getting cooled until it reaches 4degrees celcius. After that, if water is still cooled, i.e. below 4 degrees celcius, it expands and a why to this question hasn't been found yet. Except for water mercury also happens to expand but for a short time between -7 to 4 degrees celcius and if it is cooled below -7 degrees it contracts.

Answer 7

I don't know why it contracts irregularly with cooling, but this behaviour of water certainly has an effect on the continued survival of water dwelling creatures.

The water at the bottom of the pond remains liquid, while there is a layer of ice on top and the fish can survive, till it freezes all through.

The maximum density of water is at +4 degrees C

Answer 8

I believe it has to due with the same property which causes surface water tension. The organization of molecules will tend towards a retension of area, which when applied to the crytaline form, ice, inclines expasiveness. I am not a chemist, so terminology is not accurate or current, but hopefully my understanding is near to what you're looking for.

Answer 9

I have asked this question of scientists, and have yet to get an explanation that is both understandable and sensible. Most can tell you just WHAT it will do, but are at as much of a loss as I am when it comes to WHY. The few that could possibly explain it, could not do so in a way a person like me without a lot of scientific background could understand. Lots of luck with this one.

Answer 10

The expansion only occurs just below freezing. At sufficiently low temps, ice will contract like any other material.