Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What would happen when a beaker of water freezes into ice?

Ice and water represent different phases of water, while water is the liquid phase, ice is the solid phase.


Water has higher density than ice, in other words, it is heavier than ice. This is the reason why ice floats on surface of water. In comparison to water, ice has a more open structure, with empty spaces between the molecules. This is because of more hydrogen bonding in case of ice (each water molecule is hydrogen bonded with 4 other water molecules).


Thus, when water freezes into ice, it expands (that is, it will occupy more volume). When frozen in a beaker, this expansion of matter (corresponding to conversion of water to ice), will cause the glass beaker to crack or break. This is also the reason we do not put sealed soda bottles into freezer. 


Hope this helps. 

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