Quote:
Originally Posted by Dutchdivco
My 1st post, after intro'ing myself. Water is a fascinating stuff, no doubt.Read its the only substance that expands, when heated or cooled. (Not counting things like milk, which is largely water).Anyone know of an explanation or theory as to why it expands when frozen? Jim
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umm the explanation is fairly streight forward:
generally liquids expand when heated and shrink when cooled because when they are hotter, the mulecules move faster and need 'room to move'.
water has an intersting charcteristic due to it's molecular V shape and strong H bonds, so that when it is frozen is takes more space for each molecule. i found a
web page with a nice diargam that demonstrates that
at the top you have ice and at the bottom you have water. in water the V shaped molecules are closer to each other because the hydrogen atoms (small balls) are not bonded to oxygen (large balls) from another molecule, while in ice every hydrogen is bonded to an oxygen from another molecule (represented by the rods that are connecting the balls), creating that larger tertahedral shape.
