Ice is a solid but why does it floats on water?

Answer 1

Ice is a solid because its molecules(the thing every thing is made of)are really close together so they get stronger,and is more visibleand it takes enough force to break or push your hand through it that its state would be a solid.

Answer 2

As the temperature lowers the molecules slow down and form into a crystal. The total volume of actual h2o is smaller. The reason the ice cube is larger than its relative size in liquid form is due to gaps the crystal structure creates. The higher density and crystal structure makes solids of any molecule much harder relative to its liquid counterpart. This goes for every liquid vs. solid.

Answer 3

Ice is different from most other solids because it is less dense than its liquid form. This means that solid ice will float on liquid water. The reason ice has this unique property is that when water freezes, its hydrogen bonds arrange in an expansive network.

Answer 4

Pure water (H2O) has a solidification temperature (at a pressure of 1 atmosphere)

of 273.15 K (0.00oC). At this temperature you may have solid phase and liquid phase

in equilibrium. If your closed system consists of just water, below this temperature

you will only have solid phase water.

Now, if you make ice cubes in your refrigerator you may frequently get ice cubes that

don't look fully crystalline (transparent). That's because of the presence of tiny air

bubbles with some water vapor in it. If you want ice cubes that look clear, you'll have

to first boil the air out of the water, and better yet use distilled water. Distilled water

because some drinking water could have some calcium and magnesium not very

soluble salts that may come out from solution during the cooling and solidification

process.

Snow flakes are made of tiny crystals of water forming a lot of crystal-air and crystal-

crystal interface. This produces diffuse reflection and diffuse refraction of light. The

first is responsible for flakes to look white, and the second for flakes not to be crystal

clear. Anyway, as long as their surrounding temperature is below 0oC and kept from

interaction with other substances like salt, they are just solid phase.

In nature you will find crystal clear ice but mostly ice will look white because of

air in tiny bubbles and filling fractures in the ice.

Answer 5

Because it takes up more volume as a solid than it does as a liquid.

Answer 6

Water forms stable hydrogen bonds in the solid state which pushes away the individual molecules enough to form little pockets of air inbetween the molecules

Answer 7

Ice is a unique solid because it is less dense than its liquid form, while the opposite is true of other solids.

Answer 8

because it is frozen