Question

You collect and measure samples of ice and surrounding ice water from a stream in the winter. you find that you collected the same number of water molecules in each form. the volume of the ice samples are larger than the ice water samples. this is a result of

Answer 1

Ice samples have a larger volume than water samples because ice's crystalline structure, formed by hydrogen bonds, creates empty spaces between molecules, making ice less dense. This unique structure arises as molecular motion decreases and temperature drops, leading to ice floating on water.

Step-by-step explanation:

The volume of the ice samples is larger than that of the ice water samples because ice has a unique crystalline structure due to hydrogen bonding. When water freezes and becomes ice, its molecules arrange in a rigid, lattice-like structure that maximizes hydrogen bonding but creates open spaces between the molecules. This structure leads to ice being less dense than liquid water, which in turn means that a given number of water molecules will occupy a larger volume as ice than as liquid water.

As temperature decreases and molecular motion reduces, less energy is present to break these hydrogen bonds, resulting in the intact and well-defined lattice structure of ice. Conversely, when ice melts, thermal motion disrupts the hydrogen-bonded structure, allowing the water molecules to pack more closely together and thereby increase the density. Therefore, ice is one of the very few substances whose solid form has a lower density than its liquid form at the freezing point, causing the solid form (ice) to float on the liquid (water).

Answer 2

The density of ice is lower than that of water, meaning that for the same amount of water, ice will have a greater volume than liquid water.

This is a special characteristic unique to water, that its liquid form is denser than both its solid and gaseous forms. This lowering of density occurs because the molecular bonds in water (dihydrogen monoxide) are hydrogen bonds, and the crystal structure formed when freezing the molecules into a solid cause the atoms to distance themselves from each other, resulting in expansion.