Given that heat causes things to expand, and cold causes things to contract, why is it that...
when water freezes, it expands and will break a container that has not had expansion room left inside, and the ice cubes "mound up" in the trays?
every atom is in vibrating mode almost in every temperature, below absolute zero there is no vibration. as temperature rises atoms gain energy, its internal energy increases and simultaneously vibration also increases and its need more space. this is the reason why heat causes things to expand,
but for water its inverse when concerning temperature around its melting point because when water solidifies atoms arrange them to make snow flakes which needs more space than liquid.
The properties of water are vital for life. Most substances contract as they cool because the particles have less kinetic energy and vibrate less violently. Due to this, most substances get more dense as they move from gas to liquid to solid.
Water is a special case because, unlike almost every other substance, it EXPANDS when it freezes (i.e. becomes less dense). This can crack containers which will not expand (indeed, they are trying to contract very slightly. Water expands because the water molecules arrange themselves in a crystalline structure that is less dense than water due to partial charges on different parts of the water molecule (think magnets)
My More Tricky Science Questions (http://tfscientist.hubpages.com/hub/10- … s-answered) hub takes a look at 'Why does ice float' which is a continuation of this phenomenon. It also includes a video showing why ice expands.
Thank you! Very well explained. Related to this, way back in earth science class, I vaguely recall a phenomenon of something changing from solid to gas so rapidly it did not become liquid in between--I've forgotten the term that describes this...??
Sublimation is the act of changing from a solid directly to a gas - Carbon Dioxide changes from solid to gas at room temperature and pressure. Iodine crystals sublime on gentle heating
Ah, yes--thank you! Something like that nagging at the back of your brain can drive you nuts! ;-)
BTW--your link to your other article brings up 410 error msg: page does not exist..
http://tfscientist.hubpages.com/hub/10- … s-answered try that one!
I'll also add to TFScientist's comment: water believe it or not is a "polar" molecule. It is one of a few substances that creates a crystal lattice structure when it is in a solid state. It floats when frozen because of this lattice structure it creates - another amazing thing about the water molecule. Because ice floats, it has affected all life on the planet: a pond freezing leaves room for fish to swim below, icebergs to float and glaciers to hold so much water. It's good stuff!
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |