Why does ice float on water?

1] Why does ice float on water?

Ice

You may have often put ice cubes into a

glass of cold drink, but have you ever

wondered why the cubes float on water

instead of sinking lce floats on water

because it is lighter than that. Long ago, a

Greek scientist named Archimedes also

wondered about it. He hit upon a solution,

which is, today, known as the Archimedes

Principle. He put forward the law of

floatation of bodies'. According to this law,

whenever a body is placed in water, two

forces act upon it - the weight of the body

acting downwards and the buoyant force of

water acting upwards. If the weight of the

body is equal to or less than the upward

thrust of water, the body floats. In simpler

words, a lighter object always floats on water.

On the other hand, if the weight of a body

is more than the weight of the water

displaced by it, it sinks. This phenomenon is

same as a piece of word floating on the

surface of water. Since the weight of wood is nearly half the

weight of an equal volume of water, half of the wood remain submerged, while the other half can be seen on the top. Generally, when a liquid changes into a solid, its molecules Come closer to each other and it Contracts. As a result, the volume of the

liquid decreases and its density increases.

Hence a substance becomes heavier in solid

state than in the liquid state. But then, what

makes on ice cube float?

Submerged icebergs Water is a peculiar liquid. When it freezes and changes into ice, its molecules- instead of coming closer - expand.Thus,

the volume of ice increases. As a result of

this expansion, its density decreases to nine-

tenths of the density of water. So if you try

freezing nine litres of water, you will get ten

litres of ice! Do you know that nine-tenths

of the ice is submerged in water, while only

one-tenth is visible?

The ice cubes floating in your drink are very much similar to the icebergs floating in

the sea. This also explains the reason why

the maximum portion of the giant icebergs

remains submerged in water while only a

tip (1/10 part) is above water.

In the older days, a number of ships.

sank, including the Titanic (sank on Apil 15

1912), as they could not see the icebergs

submerged in water. This is why icebergs are

Considered to be dangerous. The ice unde

water (9/10 of the whole) displaces wate

The weight of the water displaced equal

the weight of the ice. The largest iceberg

In 1956 was in the South Pacific. It wa

335 kilometres long and 97 kilometres wide.