> So question of the day: If > thermal expansion causes pressure to rise/fluid to expand when heat is > applied and to contract when heat is removed what then causes water to > also expand when it reaches it's freezing point and is this true for > all fluids. This two-part question is worth 50% of your final exam > relative to this thread.
my guess is--- what causes water to expand when it freezes has to do with the way the molecular lattice forms in the solid phase. The little buggers don't hug so tightly, when they realize they are stuck with their nearest neighbor from now until...well...until their personal hell thaws over. no, it is not true for all fluids. water being one of the few molecules that behaves in this way. If it did not behave in this way, it would be SHTF time. we would not be here. that is because our planet would have frozen over long ago. when liquid water expands to form solid ice, it becomes less dense than liquid--- which is nice. nice because it insulates the water below, so the fish can continue to go about their business. if ice were denser than liquid water, ice would sink, allowing the surface to continue to generate more and more ice, probably leading to a solid frozen slab of water through its thickness. not good for aquatic life, which is not good for terrestial life, either. scot deal excelsior fire engineering _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
