The Image what comes to my mind on hearing the word "ICEBERG" is TITANIC. A huge ICEBERG floating on the ATLANTIC made HISTORY. As we know, an ICEBERG is a piece of ICE broken from a GLACIER. One important thing is that ICEBERGS are made of FRESH WATER. They are heavy enough to submerge 89 % of their body, which means only 11 % is seen above the Water level.The relation between Temperature, Density and Volume is confusing me about this FACT that ICEBERG floats on water.Density is the MASS of a Substance per unit volume. When the Temperature of any liquid is increased, the liquid expands which means it occupies larger volume and hence its DENSITY decreases.
When you heat up Water in a Vessel. Though we heat the vessel at the bottom, the water near the surface is WARMER than the Water at the bottom. This is because heating water increase its volume and decreases in density. In simple words, the water at bottom becomes LIGHTER in weight, so they move UP when they get heated. This is the reason for the RANDOM movement of Water. From this it is clear that when temperature increases, WEIGHT decreases.
ICEBERG or even ICE CUBES are formed when we COOL them to a temperature below 0o Celsius (at atmospheric pressure). On cooling, the WEIGHT must INCREASE. ICE must be heavier than WATER and so it must go down. But this doesn't happen in reality. ICEBERGS and ICE CUBES float on Water.
The FACT is that H2O (WATER) is somewhat different from all other SUBSTANCES found on EARTH. The density of Water is maximum at 40 Celsius. Below 40 Celsius the DENSITY again starts decreasing. So, the density of Ice is less than that of LIQUID WATER. It is because of the BONDING between Hydrogen and Oxygen. There is air filled between these molecules which INCREASES the VOLUME and DECREASES its DENSITY (Weight).
This makes ICEBERGS to float on WATER.
This UNIQUE property of WATER is said to be a GIFT to all Sea creatures habiting in Water blow the SHEET of ICE.
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