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Serious question: doesn't ice/nearly freezing water have these properties?
by paulgerhardt 14y ago
Serious question: doesn't ice/nearly freezing water have these properties?
- cma 14y agoDon't think so. Ice is less dense than water. Ice skating creates a small layer of water due to pressure that allows you to slide around.
- gnaritas 14y agoIt may be less dense, but it takes up more space. Water expands when it freezes. Density isn't the issue, I'm not sure why you bring it up.
- andrewflnr 14y agoTaking up more space with the same mass is the definition of lower density.
- gnaritas 14y agoEh, my bad, don't know what I was thinking.
- sp332 14y agoYup! In order to form crystals, the water molecules actually settle a bit further from each other than when they're a liquid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice#Characteristics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice#Characteristics
- icegreentea 14y agoYeah more or less. The actual paper is about materials exploiting solid/solid phase transitions to achieve this type of behavior. Obviously, the solid/liquid transition is less useful in many applications, so it'd be cool to get a purely solid substance to do this.