Answer to Question #174506 in Molecular Physics | Thermodynamics for Fabio Corrieri

Question

I'm trying to understand how water increases its size when it freezes. And if it's possible to recreate the experiment in vacuum to observe if it still expands as it does on the atmosphere

Answer 1

Answer

According to thermodynamics concepts

When During freezing, water molecules lose energy and do not vibrate or move around as randomly. This allows more stable hydrogen-bonds to form between water molecules, as they less energy to break the bonds.therefore water expands as it freezes, and ice floats atop water.

And also we can say

When liquid water is cooled, it contracts like one would expect until a temperature of approximately 4° C is reached. After that, it expands slightly until it reaches the freezing point, and then when it freezes it expands by approximately 9%.

So all this happened.