The World of Emperor Gon of Carthage
The Planet of Aqua--The New Gaia theory: 2
Emperor Gon of Carthage
January 28, 2002
Chapter 2 An ice that sinks
Let's presume that water would decrease its volume when water changes from liquid to solid, the usual behavior seen with other substances. Decrease in volume while weight stays unchanged would indicate increase in specific gravity. And guess what would happern? An ice will sink into water!
Gigantic ice bergs floating on the oceans of North and South poles would disappear, saving the Titanic from going down. The lion of winter, the drift ice of the Okhotsk will not be viewed.
Furthermore, oceans are not the only bodies affected by such phenomenon. The surface of the earth would also experience big change. Many of the abrasions on rocks and other earth surfaces are caused by the changes in volume originating from the infiltrated water freezing at low temperature. If the volume of water will not increase when it turns into ice, then the abrasions shall be much smaller causing less rock falls during climbing.
Ice cream manufacturers would also face crisis if the volume of ice becomes less than liquid water. They would require more materials to produce the same size of ice cream than it is required now. The consumers also must beware because we end up eating heavier ice cream whenever we eat the usual size of ice cream, thus taking in more calories. For those women on diet, this is no joke!
But not everything is unfavorable. During the hot summer, some of you may have placed a beer in the freezer to cool it down immediately when you ran out of cool beer and carelessly forgot about it. By the time you realized, the beer had already burst. I go through such failure, at least once every season. But don't worry. If the volume will not swell, such would never occur (the can may become dented due to pressure).
Ooops! I wandered from the subject to some idle parable. Anyway, the fact that water would increase its volume when it changes to ice and thus letting ice float on the water is an extremely unusual phenomenon even chemically. Can you think of any other substances that one could easily conjecture its solid, liquid and gas phases?
I guess you came up with nothing. Water is the only substance on earth that exist in three phases of solid, liquid and gas under ordinary temperature (meaning not in an extreme condition but in a range that humans can live for a certain time)
Translated by Rie Ishida
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