why does ice float?

Question

i was wondering why ice floates.

Answer 1

When water freezes it expands. Ice displaces more water than it weights. So it floats. An item must displace more water than its weight in order to float.

Answer 2

Why Does Ice Float

Answer 3

When water freezes, the molecules bond to each other in a crystalline structure. This forces them into a predictable pattern throughout the ice. Liquid water molecules are free to move around each other.

The above effect makes ice less dense. Just like an inner tube full of air will float because it is full of air and therefore weighs less relative to the volume it takes up, ice also weighs less compared to the same volume of water.

Think of it this way: Which weight less - a box of tinker toys all made into little boxes? Or a box of tinker toys that are loose and can lay flatter against each other? The little tinkertoy boxes are going to pack down much less efficiently and you will not be able to get as many in a box compared to if they were loose.

Water molecules and ice molecules behave the same way - roughly speaking.

- Kevin

Answer 4

Ice as mentioned is less dense as water. But when it freezes first crystallises then becomes solid. But during that process it traps air and that's why it floats. And on another note: That's how they can find climate change thousands of years back, since the trapped air contains lots of particles relating back to that era..

Answer 5

Water is H20 in random motion, and there is no "inter-molecular bonding" (this is a type of weak bonding due to +ve attracting -ve.)

However, H20 doesn't have enough energy at 0degrees celcius to move about randomly, so the H2O molecules form hydrogen bonds with each other:
......O-
...../ \
..+H +H
..-O -O
../ \ / \
+H +HH+ H+

This formation expands the volume of the H20 liquid, forming a less dense, more massive Ice structure.

Answer 6

To float above water, you have to have lighter mass than water, and ice follows the rules of physics because of this.


[e-mail]

Answer 7

Is It Cause It Not Hevy Like Bricks Don't Float or i think its that the ice is made by water it freeze then crack

Answer 8

Lighter than water as it's surface area spreads over liquid. It's similar to Battleship made of Iron floating on ocean...it's huge, but still lighter than the volume of liquid water around it.

Answer 9

because when you feeze water in expands therefore ice is less dense than water.

Answer 10

(because the ice less denser is less denser than water) the ice is water which frozen and that's why is less denser than the water.