Why Does Ice Float?

Now that is a crazy question! Ice floats because it is ice and ice floats. You drop an ice cube into lemonade, and it bobs to the surface. Simple explanation. Or is it?

Think back to your elementary school science class. Miss Peach (your teacher) stands at the chalk board and writes the three stages of a substance-gas, liquid, and solid. Liquid is denser than gas and solid is denser than liquid. Miss Peach then explains that solids are heavier than liquids. Liquids are heavier than gas. That principle applies to most substances in our world except…water. 

Look at that ice cube floating in your glass. Ice is heavier than lemonade therefore it should sink. Please explain that to me, Miss Peach. Drop butter into water. It sinks. Drop a Hershey kiss into milk. It sinks. Why does ice float in water?

Let’s take a closer look. Water at 70 degrees is lighter than water at 50 degrees. A strange phenomenon happens at 39 degrees. That is the tipping point. Water starts to get lighter, continues to get lighter until it hits 32 degrees and freezes. Ice is 9 percent lighter than liquid. Even Miss Peach could not explain this curiosity of nature.

British biochemist Michael Denton wrote of the bizarre behavior of water in his book The Wonder of Water. Best-selling author Eric Metaxas read Denton’s book and pondered the nature of water, a subject he once would have labeled humdrum.

the way things are so dramatically improbable that we must at least wonder…how it can all be possible, and whether a God with infinite intelligence may have made these things intentionally. 

Atheists call this type of phenomenon the fine tuning of the universe. For non-believers, it is the hardest argument to mount against the existence of God. Even a cell or molecule of water is exquisitely designed. 

Metaxas wrote the following words in his eye-opening book, Is Atheism Dead? 

We are living in unprecedentedly exciting times. But most of us don’t know it yet…By this I mean the emergence of inescapably compelling evidence for God’s existence.

Metaxas draws on recent scientific studies and discoveries in biblical archaeology to build his case for the existence of God. Not only are faith and reason compatible, but history also shows that Christianity begat science.

More on this later.

3 thoughts on “Why Does Ice Float?

  1. Great story! God is amazing! I was noticing yesterday morning as I was eating a hard boiled egg that just how perfectly oval every egg is!! Gods creation is perfect!

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