The polar ice-caps and water displacement theory

[johnb]

I don't get this. You put ice in a class of water. It melts. The water level stays the same.

This surely applies to icebergs.

So even if temperatures increase and the ice-caps melt, we won't be flooded.

Right?

[She Knows It]

Wrong. Because your ice cube is in your glass of water. Icebergs have a sticky out of the sea bit of top, with would add to the oceanic volume of water on melting.

[DT]

Icebergs are the same as ice cubes though surely?

[Anny Road]

Is a lot of the ice not on land.

[madstock]

"Ice Cube - Dead Ahead!"

[Fink]

When you heat something up it expands.

When you cool it down it contracts.

Thats about all i remember from my B is GCSE chemistry.

[She Knows It]

Behold the scientific diagrams below:

i. The ice cubes are within the liquid, so when they melt there will be no greater volume within the glass -


ii. The sticky out bit is out of the water. So when it melts, that liquid will be added to the volume, thus raising the water level.


Next week's lesson will involve a Van Der Graff generator and mad hair.

[Strontium Dog]

Originally Posted by She Knows It

ii. The sticky out bit is out of the water. So when it melts, that liquid will be added to the volume, thus raising the water level.

You're wrong. Ice cubes float like icebergs, with about 7/8 of their mass below the water line. An iceberg melting won't raise the water level.

Originally Posted by johnb

I don't get this. You put ice in a class of water. It melts. The water level stays the same.

This surely applies to icebergs.

This is correct.

So even if temperatures increase and the ice-caps melt, we won't be flooded.

Right?

No. The North Pole melting won't cause a sea-level rise, but a lot of the ice is on land.

[RedinSweden]

Originally Posted by Strontium Dog

You're wrong. Ice cubes float like icebergs, with about 7/8 of their mass below the water line.

Glaciers don't though.

[Strontium Dog]

Originally Posted by RedinSweden

Glaciers don't though.

Well quite. But SKI didn't mention glaciers.

[keysaint]

isn't it because the ice is less dense than the water so if the ice melts it's actually 10% (or so) less dense than before. the 10% stuck out would thus make no difference. Feel free to pick holes in my shit logic.

[Strontium Dog]

Originally Posted by keysaint

isn't it because the ice is less dense than the water so if the ice melts it's actually 10% (or so) less dense than before. the 10% stuck out would thus make no difference. Feel free to pick holes in my shit logic.

That's exactly what it is. That's why your drink doesn't overflow when your ice cubes melt.

[madstock]

Originally Posted by RedinSweden

Glaciers don't though.

Originally Posted by Strontium Dog

Well quite. But SKI didn't mention glaciers.

What about Glacier Mints?

[kop]

Originally Posted by She Knows It

Behold the scientific diagrams below:

i. The ice cubes are within the liquid, so when they melt there will be no greater volume within the glass -


ii. The sticky out bit is out of the water. So when it melts, that liquid will be added to the volume, thus raising the water level.


Next week's lesson will involve a Van Der Graff generator and mad hair.

Because of the density of ice versus water, an iceberg will always have a "sticky out bit" (because of air mixing with the water when it freezes, and thus making it lighter). The weight of the iceberg is what matters though, and as long as the iceberg is buoyant and not standing on the sea bottom, the water will not rise if the iceberg melts. If you're taking a bath, try to put a small inflatable boat in it. Then you take note of the water level when you put various things in the boat. The more weight you put in, the more the water level will rise, even though the weight put in is above the water line.

What the environmentalists (sp?) are affraid of is not the melting of icebergs in the water, it's the melting of the land based glaciers.

[Cath]

Originally Posted by madstock

What about Glacier Mints?

I think they're kept under the water by a bloody great polar bear.

[madstock]

Originally Posted by Cath

I think they're kept under the water by a bloody great polar bear.

Thanks Cath, I knew there was some sort of scientific explanation for it all.

Would the same apply to a mint humbug though, or would that require a large zebra for camoflage purposes?

[kopitegaz]

Originally Posted by Cath

I think they're kept under the water by a bloody great polar bear.

This one?

[The Chief]

Originally Posted by Strontium Dog

Well quite. But SKI didn't mention glaciers.

Aren't they trying to sell Man utd?

[DT]

Where's She Knows It gone to?

[madstock]

I believe that Lez has tried to recreate the above experiment by filling one of the freezers in Waitrose with water and then popping in a load of icecubes to make a pseudo-iceberg.

I would therefore imagine that she is now in protective custody, although I could be wrong.

[She Knows It]

Originally Posted by madstock

I believe that Lez has tried to recreate the above experiment by filling one of the freezers in Waitrose with water and then popping in a load of icecubes to make a pseudo-iceberg.

I would therefore imagine that she is now in protective custody, although I could be wrong.

You were unbelievably close! Been to Asda to do the 'big' shop, although I chose to perform said carefully controlled experiment prior to departure, in the comfort of my kitchen. Two ice cubes in a glass of water. One had a flat edge and floated within the water as per diagram i (above). The second, and all credit to the Dog, had a more jagged surface (not un-icebergish I must say) and did indeed penetrate the viscous membrane. However, it was not 1/8 which was exposed. Probably closer to 1/16.

I am tempted by the Waitrose freezer test, but my pedantry is only superseded by my lack of arsedness. That coupled with the fact that I got an E in GCSE chemistry, and didn't even sit Physics (the school appreciated it would be a waste of biro ink) means I will concede that I am wrong.

[bobhorse]

Ice melts, Water freezes, it has been forever so. All you need to know really the rest of it i wont be here to see so fuck it

[madstock]

Originally Posted by bobhorse

Ice melts, Water freezes, it has been forever so. All you need to know really the rest of it i wont be here to see so fuck it

The principle of madstock experimentation would go as follows:

1. Be entirely sure that your hypothesis is correct.
2. Set out to prove that your hypothesis is correct by setting up a cunning experiment.
3. Experiment does not prove your hypothesis.
4. Swear at experiment.
5. Re-attempt experiment, whilst prodding ice cubes (or equivalent) with fork, "just incase"
6. Get more irate with experiment as it obviously defies nature. Swear again.
7. Give up, and decide that experiment was wrong, not hypothesis. Plan next move with Waitrose freezers.

[philyhamann]

This maybe true for some icebergs, but a shitload of the ice is on land, which means when it melts it'll go into the sea.

[The Chief]

Originally Posted by philyburkhill

This maybe true for some icebergs, but a shitload of the ice is on land, which means when it melts it'll go into the sea.

Plus there's a slight difference between a little ice cube and 100 miles of fucking ice shelf. Just thought i'd point that out for y'all.

Irishman walks up to a little Jew and punches him to the ground, The little Jew says "what was that for", "that's for sinking the Titanic" the Irishman says, "that wasn't me that was an iceberg" the little fella says, "iceberg, Goldberg, you're all the fucking same", says the Irishman.