# Presentation: 662089

## What makes water sospecial in winter / summer? 

- Together with
- his parents
- (Dr. and Mrs. Surrow)

- By
- Carl Surrow

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Introduction (1)

- Water comes in three states:
- Solid (‘ice’)
- Liquid (‘water’)
- Gaseous (‘steam’)
- Example: liquid water turning into the gaseous state called steam
- When my mother boils water I can ‘see’ that water is first liquid which is the kind of water which I use to wash my hands
- After a few minutes the water in the pot boils and turns into steam
- The steam is then all over the place and takes up more space than the liquid water in the pot

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Introduction (2)

- Example: Liquid water turning into ice (‘solid’)
- In the winter the water in a lake gets colder and turns into ice if the temperature falls below 32o F (this is called the freezing point)
- When I went to the Setauket pond with my father, I saw that there are some patches of ice that appear to be floating  on the lake

- Conclusion:
- I saw that water can be gaseous, liquid and solid
- When liquid water turns into steam it takes up more space
_**Question**__?_ Does water then need less space when it turns from liquid into solid?

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Hypothesis

- Usual behavior of materials
- My father told me that most materials need less space when they turn from liquid into solid
- The solid states are then heavier than the liquid state
- Those solid states then do not float within their liquid state

- Unusual behavior of water
- I saw on the Setauket pond that ice floats on liquid water
- My father told me that this can only be if ice water is lighter than liquid water and
- Therefore liquid water must expand when it turns into ice
- Water should therefore be very different! Is this true? We want to find the answer out in several experiments!

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Experiments (1)

- Which objects do float in liquid water?
- We tried out four different objects if they float in liquid water:
- Observation:
- Paper: floats
- Coin: does not float
- Screw: does not float
- Wood stick: floats

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Experiments (2)

- Check if ice cubes float like the patches of ice on the Setauket pond?
- I threw several ice cubes in a bowl of water
- Observation:
- The ice cubes do float in the water
- Only a tiny bit of the ice cube is above the water – most of it is under the water

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Experiments (3)

- Check if liquid water expands when it turns into ice?
- I filled up a bottle of water and put it in the freezer
- I put before a red mark at the level  of the liquid water
- After one day, the water turned into ice and I noticed that it expanded
- Observation:
- When liquid water turns into ice it expands

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Summary

- Ice cubes float in water, just like very light objects, for example a piece of paper
- Ice must be then lighter than liquid water
- When liquid water turns into ice, it expands
- Both are the same effect!
- This is an unusual behavior of water compared to many other materials as my father told me. Water seems very ‘strange’ this way!
- We thought now of some examples where we can see this in nature or in our very day life!

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Conclusion (1)

- When water runs into little holes on a street it expands when it freezes and makes a lot of cracks in winter
- Every spring we see than many holes on streets
- Those have to be fixed than with new asphalt

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Conclusion (2)

- In the winter the cold air turns the top of a lake into ice
- Since ice is lighter than liquid water the patches of ice can float on the lake
- I have seen this with my father at the Setauket pond

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Conclusion (3)

- At the North and South pool you can find huge ice mountains
- Since ice is lighter than liquid water the ice mountains float in the ocean and only a tiny fraction is sticking out from the water
- I have seen this with my father when I did the experiment with ice cubes
- A huge ice mountain caused the Titanic ship to sink

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow

## Experiments (4)

- Summer and winter in a lake
- In the summer the hot air makes the water on the top in the lake warm. The warm water ‘floats’ on the cold water on the bottom
- In the winter, the cold air turns the top of the lake into ice. The ice floats on the cold water. That is why the fish in a lake can live in winter

- Science Fair, Minnesauke School, Setauket, Long Island, New York

- January, 14th, 2002, Carl Surrow