Does water expand when frozen or does it contract?

Question

Does water expand when frozen or does it contract?

Answer 1

if you put a full water bottle in the freezer, it might explode because when water freezes it expands...basically what happens is that the molecules align themselves hexagonically, so 4 hydrogen atoms surround 1 oxygen atom, 2 by covalent bonding and the other 2 by hydrogen bonding (the hydrogen bonds just get stronger). various things make it so, water is polar so it has a negative and a positive side, the oxygen atoms are attracted to the hydrogen atoms, and so they will arrange themselves to satisfy their "likes" if u will. if you draw it out, you will have a water molecule (2 hydrogen 1 oxygen), you know the molecule is bent, so on the opposite side there will be 2 other hydrogen atoms from another water molecule attracted to the oxygen atom (Hydrogen bonding). to that second water molecule it will have another 2 hydrogen atoms bonded by intermolecular forces...and so on...

hope this helps :p

Answer 2

water expand when frozen...... its weird huh...

Answer 3

no.......it wil be same

Answer 4

expands. have you ever frozen a can of soda. i think it traps air in the crystal structure or something like that. you may want to wait for other answers to be more sure.

Answer 5

When being cooled and frozen, water reaches a maximum density at 4C causing all lake water to turn over top to bottom before ice can form on the surface.  Then water molecules start to form chains and crystals that use up space less efficiently reducing density and allowing ice to float.  As solid ice is lowered in temperature it shrinks like any other solid.

Answer 6

Strange thing about water is that it has a strange kink in the temperature / density graph.  So it contracts up to a point, which I believe to be about 0.4 degrees c, expands a bit as the temp goes down, then starts to contract again.