What is an iceberg and why does it float?
Ice's Floating Secret
What is an iceberg and why does it float?
An iceberg is a massive chunk of ice floating in the ocean — some as big as cities, drifting slowly through cold seas. But here's the puzzle: ice is frozen water, and it's floating in water. Why doesn't it just sink like a rock?
The answer lives in a strange trick that water plays when it freezes. Most things shrink when they get cold — metal, juice, even air. But water does the opposite. When water freezes into ice, it expands — it takes up more space than it did as a liquid.
