Thread: It's getting windier.
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Old 08-01-2005, 19:33   #94
Theodoric
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Re: It's getting windier.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nffc
It does, but 1 litre of ice will contain less water molecules than 1 litre of water.

The whole reason ice floats is because it's less dense than water.

Overall if all the ice was to melt I'm pretty sure that the water level will fall due to the volume decrease. As has been explained countless times.

[It's still pretty windy though]
The water level will stay the same. The upthrust on the floating ice equals the weight of water dispaced (Archimedes Principle). As the ice is floating, the upthrust equals the weight of the ice (the ice would either sink or rise if it wasn't). Therefore the weight of water displaced equals the weight of ice. Therefore when the ice melts it is converted into a weight of water equal to the weight of water displaced by the ice. Therefore it exactly fills the "hole" you can imagine left by the melted ice, so there is no change in water level.
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