Ice, water n shit
* GLOBAL WARMING QUERY - kkealy enquires, "I have a question about Global Warming. If you take a glass full of ice cubes, fill it to the tippy-top with water, and then wait for the ice to melt, the water level will fall (go ahead, try it). This is because water expands when it freezes (hence the burst pipes in your attic). So - if the global warming thing happens, and the polar ice-caps melt, given that 90% of the North Pole is, in fact, UNDERwater, won't the sea level /fall/ instead of rise....?"

This question is damn good! I had to think about this while on the loo. (the thinking mans throne)

Anyway, I don't think the sea level would fall.

Why? Because you have to take into account the proportion of ice to water - for example, take a glass, put about 2-3cm of water in it. Then fill it up with ice cubes. Lo and behold the water will rise! There's more water in the ice than in the initial amount of water.
While the proportion of ice to water is rather skewed in that example, I'm sure the ice/water ratio on the earth is nearer 1:1 so proportionally there won't be a huge rise. To us puny humans it will look like a huge rise (I think something along the lines of 20m) but to the earth it just needs to paddle a bit more.

So therefore sea level will still rise.

(I'm no scientist but this makes sense to me.)
(AdamJ Just another pom, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:24, archived)

it's more
that Antartica is a fucking great big land mass covered in ice, and it'll all run into the sea if it melts instead of being all high up and not contributing to the sea levels.

(although the stuff that's floating.. if it all melted would lower the sea levels a teeny but. not much though)

edityedit. the reason the level goes up in the glass when you only have a small amount of water is they're not contributing to the water level when they're stacked at the bottom of the glass... if they were floating the level would drop. :-)
(Fantastic Mr Porter is bored, and wishes it was, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:26, archived)

If you see an iceberg floating in the sea
By far most of it is already under water.
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:32, archived)

this is indeed true.
7/8ths or so. this is because ice is only slightly less dense than water. (water's at its most dense at around 4 degrees C, I believe...)

edit: and because the floating ice becomes more dense when it melts, it has less volume, so the water level drops *slightly*. would be counteracted by the huge amount of ice sitting on land melting though
(Fantastic Mr Porter is bored, and wishes it was, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:34, archived)

a lot of the arctic is touching land at the bottom though
and is higher compared to the water than it would be if it were floating freely
( spacefish bong!, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:34, archived)

i'm a scientist
and it makes no sense to me

can't we all just do our bit by drinking a gallon of water each or something?
( spacefish bong!, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:32, archived)

I just drank 500ml of 'relaxing botanic water'
does that count?

Whether it counts or not, you can guarantee I'm going to be up weeeeeing all night now :-(
( Mrs Trouser is probably annoying Dave just by being here on, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:34, archived)

i for one will sleep soundly knowing that

( spacefish bong!, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:35, archived)

I passed several pints of botanic slurry
earlier, maybe that's similar.
( moohalaa, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:36, archived)

Relaxing botanic water? Is this one of those pseudosciency things that'll realy piss me off and make me unpleasant this time of night
And so I should just ignore it? (Not you though)
( Dave the Mighty, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:48, archived)

If we did that
Then there would be loads of wee everywhere instead of seawater.
( Rubymurray is disdainful of your hateful, ill-formed opinions, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 1:36, archived)

ice is less dense than water
there is less water in ice as a solid than water as a liquid.

This is all I have to say on the matter.
( rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 2:03, archived)

this question made me really think
in the end, why not just kill all the whales who take up humungous space in the seas?

hmm
( executiverocker only wears C&A, Sat 13 Jan 2007, 2:24, archived)