Why water densest at 4

Related questions How can density be used to identify substances? How can you find mass from density? How are density mass and volume related? How do you calculate mass using density and volume? How do you convert mass to density? How do you determine the density of a gas? How does density vary with temperature? Density changes with temperature because volume changes with temperature. Density is mass divided by volume.

As you heat something up, the volume usually increases because the faster moving molecules are further apart. Since volume is in the denominator, increasing the volume decreases the density. Why does water has maximum density at 4 C? As the temperature of warm water decreases, the water molecules slow down and the density increases. The molecules are still slowing down and coming closer together, but the formation of clusters makes the molecules be further apart. What happens to water between 0 and 4 degrees Celsius?

The water freezes and changes to ice. The expansion ofwater when you cool it to lower temperatures is unusual, since most liquids contract when they're cooled. Is ice lighter than water? Solid water, or ice, is less dense than liquid water.

If you continue to cool pure water where the rate of crystallization is low to below 0, it continues to expand - the expansion even speeds up when it gets colder. Many more properties such as compressibility and heat capacity become increasingly strange as water is cooled.

Water is unique, as it can exist in two liquid states that have different ways of bonding the water molecules together. It is this ability to shift from one liquid state into another that gives water its unusual properties and since the fluctuations increase upon cooling also the strangeness increases. Science Explorer. Multimedia Gallery. Park Passes. Technical Announcements. Employees in the News. Emergency Management. Survey Manual. In practical terms, density is the weight of a substance for a specific volume.

The density of water is roughly 1 gram per milliliter but, this changes with temperature or if there are substances dissolved in it. Ice is less dense than liquid water which is why your ice cubes float in your glass. As you might expect, water density is an important water measurement. If you're still in school, you've probably heard this statement in your science class: " Density is the mass per unit volume of a substance".

On Earth, you can assume mass is the same as weight, if that makes it easier. If you're not still in school, then you probably forgot you ever even heard it. The definition of density, makes a lot more sense with a little bit of explanation.

As long as an object is made up of molecules, and thus has size or mass, it has a density. Density is just the weight for a chosen amount volume of the material. Growing up with an older brother was difficult, especially when he had his friends over, for their favorite activity was thinking of ways to antagonize me.

I was able to use water density once to at least play a trick on them, though. One hot summer day they climbed the huge hill next to our house to dig a hole to hide their bottle-cap collection. They got thirsty and made me go back home and bring them a gallon of water.

So, when they demanded another gallon of water, I consulted the "Internet" of that day—an encyclopedia— and found out that a gallon of water at the boiling point only weighed 7. I ran up the hill carrying my gallon of water that weighed 0. Source: U. Nyler,