Put ice into a glass,when it melts it doesnt affect the water level,y does global warming cause rising sea lev
If you put a block of ice into a glass of water, when it melts it doesnt affect the water level.why does melting ice caps cause rising sea levels?
GodThingie
on February 8th, 2012
The melted ice cube does affect the water level. Global warming is causing the sea level to rise because the polar ice caps are melting and adding to the amount of liquid in the sea.
ShoeLover
on February 8th, 2012
Maybe a gerat percentage of the ice frozen is on land, and so when it is frozen it will flow into the ocean, thus causing levels to rise
BlueButterFly
on February 8th, 2012
think you should check your results cos your wrong.
FantasyFootball
on February 8th, 2012
Because quite a bit of the ice in polar areas are ABOVE sealevel. Ice cubes merely float in a glass…
Sunflower
on February 8th, 2012
Because the heat melts ice which is made of water and the water increases the sea level as the melted liquid is like refilling a cup.
ShinyStars
on February 8th, 2012
she is not wrong
if you put an ice cube in a glass and fill it to the top, when the cube melts it will not over flow
the volume of the cube is the same as the melted water. duh!
EgyptianWonder
on February 8th, 2012
Displacement. The weight of the ice cubes causes the level of water to rise anyway so when it melts you still have the same amount of water because the ice is no longer displacing it and has just mixed in with the rest of the water.
For your theory to (excuse the pun) hold any water it would mean that if the ice melts the level of water would go down and it doesn’t.
Put some ice cubes in a glass on their own and then tell me that there is no water in there when they melt and you might have had a point.
As for the global warming bit. You may have something. Most of the ice that is melting is already floating in water so displacement has already happened but as someone else says some of it is actually on land and not causing displacement of the seas so when that melts as it is doing at a colossal rate the level of the sea will rise. Also I think it has something to do with salt levels in sea water compared to the lack of salt in the water from the ice affecting water temperature and currents… or something.
HighMaintenance
on February 8th, 2012
It does raise the water level when you put the ice in. However, when it melts, the resulting water is denser than the ice – thats why it floats – so the level will actually go down a very very small amount.
Water is actually less dense as a solid than as a liquid – it is densest at +4 degrees C – fascinating stuff.
MindsEye
on February 8th, 2012
Actually a melted ice cube will change the water levels of the glass. The reason you may not notice it or the change is very slight is that a glass will condensate (its how the outside of a dry glass of soda will become wet when left out in the heat). Unfortunately the amount of condensation the earth can take is quite limited (global warming is linked to floods because condensation leads to rainfall) so when condensation stops the water level rises in massive levels. Try your experiment in a thermal cup and see what happens these tend to have less condensation than regular plastic cups or glasses and you should get better results.
Fly
on February 8th, 2012
i thought that if you put an ice cube in a glass of water and record the level of the water, and then record it again when the ice has melted, the level will have gone down due to ice being less dense than water. (the water expanded when it froze so takes up less volume when melted)
with regards to global warming making sea levels rise, there are parts on earth where ice is up to a mile thick. there is far more ice above sea level that will melt and cause sea levels to rise
FollowTheLeader
on February 8th, 2012
When an ice cube melts in a glass it is usually so small a change in the water level that you can’t notice it. Although if you have an ice cube in a glass filled to the rim, as it melts it will overflow. (just a little).
With global warming there is a TON of ice melting, so it’s a noticible difference in sea level (although I’ve never noticed it.)
By the way, ice is less dense than water (meaning both that it floats and that there’s more molecules of water in a cube of water than in a cube of ice the exact same size.)
Hydrogen bonding (which you may or may not have learned about yet) locks the molecules in a set hexagonal shape (hence the 6-sided snowflakes) which creates a ring-like structure with empty space in the middle. When it melts, the molecules are free to move around and they don’t have that empty space.
Bambi
on February 8th, 2012
In glass a of glass it means insigncant, but goblley it dose.
RollingSands
on February 8th, 2012
When a block of ice in a glass of water melts, water level actually decrease because density of ice is less than its liquid form. Do not confuse this with global warming which would cause rising of sea level. When ice in polar caps melts, sea level would rise especially in other parts of the world (because it would then be distributed to other seas, not only in the polar region). Added volume would come from ice on land and ice that floats in the polar region.
Dolphinswimmer
on February 8th, 2012
emily jane has the correct answer.It’s the ice on land that will cause the problem if it melts. It isn’t currently displacing any of the sea, but will cause the sea to swell when it melts.
Erin
on February 8th, 2012
OK HERE GOES.
Look at an iceberg an you will observe that a portion of it sticks up out of the water/sea ..ok, now the portion of the iceberg that is above the sea melts and this melting ice trickles down into the sea and takes up space,room, volume which ever word you choose the melted ice turns to liquid which is called water ..the more water entering the sea the higher the sea rises and thus the sea level rises and submerges low lying land .The same happens when huge areas of ice on land stars to melt and turns into running water and flowes into the sea also thus rising the sea level.
try this ,pour some water into a container and the mark the level the water is at in the container .Now put your closed fist into this container and place it into the water and notice as you are putting more of your fist into the water the level of the water in the container rises ..so melting water causs the same as it enters the sea.
Holland in europe is at great risk to global warming as most of the land mass known as holland is very flat and if the sea level continues to rise ,quite a lot of holland will be lost to the sea
StarGirl
on February 8th, 2012
think about it, solids are denser than liquids so the ice cube expands as it melts, now in a full glass it wont make much differance – but fill a glass of water nearly to the with as many ice cubes as can fit in, its will overflow.
Cashsplash
on February 8th, 2012
All of these answers relate to floating ice, which is irrelevant to the sea-level debate. The rise of sea levels is related to continental ice, in Greenland, and mainly Antarctica. This ice is supported on land, not floating on the sea.
Try this experiment: place a flat object in the middle of a saucer to raise the centre level, and place a lump of ice on that. Fill the saucer to the brim with water. Now let the ice melt; you’ll notice the water soon overflows.
Rises and falls of sea level with ice sheet growth is well documaented, it’s not just a new “global warming” idea. During the last major glacial advance sea levels were about 100m or more lower than today.
SkateRForeveR
on February 8th, 2012
The continental ice addition is only part of the reason why sea level is rising due to global warming.
As water gets warmer it expands a little, but since there is such a lot of water in the oceans this has a big effect on the overall sea-level.
This ‘thermal expansion’ of the oceans has been measured to contribute to half of the rising trend over the past 50 years, and is anticipated to have the same contribution in the future.
Gunship
on February 8th, 2012
If you have some water in a glass, mark the level with a pen and add ice, wait till it melts and then look again there will be more water in the glass and the level will be higher. If the polar icecaps start breaking off and melt into the sea then the sea will rise. There is mountains of frozen water at the North and South Pole One third above and two thirds below.
Gideeup
on February 8th, 2012
Because it melts ice that isn’t in the cup which would run into the cup raising its level.
Beth
on August 3rd, 2011
Everyone keeps saying it but is anyone going into the kitchen with ice and a glass of water? Try it. Have u ever gotten a drink at a fast food place but forgot about it once u got home? When u get it, just inserting the straw is a hassle because the cup is so full it tries to spew the soda back on u. Its so full of ice u can drink a 32 oz in a few swallows but u dont. Instead, you get home, fall asleep, wake up dry mouthed, remember the drink and its watery and nasty now. But did it overflow? No. (Plastic cup, btw) forget density and molecules. Think of it in terms of weight. The ice cube weighs whatever. Put it in a glass of water that has room left between the water and the rim (if there’s no room, this is the only time u’ll overflow your glass). If any ice is above water its not much and keep in mind when it froze, the air made the cube bigger. Air is weightless so the weight of the cube didn’t change in the freezer. Think: whipping cream before an after u take the beaters to it. When the ice melts it adds no more weight and weight is what’s “dis-placed”. The ‘sweat’ on the outside of the glass has nothing to do with it at all. Condensation is created by a difference in temperature not by any liquid in the glass. The water doesn’t seep through the glass walls.
So, a glacier’s that’s not already affecting the sea level due to its mass in the water taking up room can go on not affecting it even if it melted in 10 seconds. But a glacier not in the water becomes part of the equation if it melts because all it will do is add to the volume of the water (like pouring 8 oz of water into your still untouched 32 oz now watered down soda u forgot about) Hope this helped.
Beth
on August 3rd, 2011
One more point (sorry) the tops of the glaciers are part of the glacier. If the glacier weighs 50,000 tons and the sea had to make room for it and divide the water so it had somewhere to sit, if it melts from top to bottom over a day or 5 decades, it still just 50,000 tons of water and will just fill the space the sea made for it. Think of how low the sea level would be if u just took the glacier out. Kinda like when u get out of a full tub and half the water is “missing”
Scott
on September 12th, 2011
Ice does not have the same volume as water per mass. their densities are different. who said ice was more dense than water? then it would sink and not float. the water level is not affected because the displaced water is equivalent to the water in the ice cube.