Why does water freeze?

Answer 1

The reason water freezes is that as heat energy leaves the water, the water molecules move more slowly. Ice crystals begin to form a solid lattice with higher cohesion between molecules. If the ice is reheated, it will lose its lattice structure and resume liquid form.

Answer 2

Loss of energy to a colder material. Ice forms at 32°F /0° C.

As water cools, the natural movement between the molecules slows until it changes to a solid state (just as it boils to gas if they become too active). This movement doesn't completely stop until the material hits "absolute zero" at -460°F /-273° C. (0° Kelvin).

That's about the temperature "in the shade" in outer space.

A more interesting question would be, "why does water expand when it freezes?" The H - two - O molecule forms a triangle (with the O in the middle).

As it cools, the angle formed by the two H's gets larger. At around 36°F /2° C , the shrinking space between molecules gets overwhelmed by the expanding size of each molecule.

So, for those last few degrees before freezing, the overall volume gets bigger instead of continuing to decrease.

That's what causes potholes in roads (water settles into cracks, then makes the crack larger as it freezes). It's what damages the eaves trough around your roof, breaks leaves down into topsoil and splits boulders in half.

Answer 3

When water freezes some interesting things happen. A pond can transform into an ice skating rink, rain turns to snow, and ice cubes transform a pot of hot steaming tea into a refreshing summer beverage. Outside, the temperatures need to drop to 32 degrees before rain freezes into snow flakes. Inside we fill up an ice cube tray with water and pop it into the freezer. Later the water has turned to ice.

Many substances contract, or shrink, in volume as they get cold. Water only contracts until it is lowered to 39 degrees, and when it gets colder than that, it begins to expand. As the water gets colder, its molecules slow down and begin moving far apart. As they get colder, the molecules move into a pattern formation. Eventually they literally freeze. When water freezes it is an example of phase transition. Phase transition is a change in the physical properties when temperature or pressure is altered.

If a plastic bottle is completely filled with water, and then secured with a lid before placing into a freezer, that water will expand as it gets colder. Eventually, the ice will cause the bottle to burst. Because the distribution of the ice is spread over a larger area than the water that it originated as, ice is lighter than water and will float.

Before the advent of refrigeration with freezing capabilities, people needed a way to get ice when the local weather was not accommodating. Ice merchants would locate ice from lakes and streams in the high country, and cut the ice into blocks. It was floated ashore and then packed in sawdust and stored in insulated ice houses. In 1799 natural ice was shipped by merchant ships from New York to South Carolina. Clipper ships also carried ice to other parts of the world. By the mid 1800s ice-making machines were developed.

Answer 4

Liquids freeze because the particles have less energy so therefore becoming solid because the cannot spread as far apart.

Liquids freeze when their particles have slowed down enough to "stick" together and form a solid structure. When the temperature--the average speed of particles--is low enough, liquids freeze into solids.

Answer 5

Water exists in three states. The states are solid, liquid, and vapor. The difference between the states is the amount of HEAT the water contains, not the temperature.

The heat that is required to change the state of water from a solid (ice) to a liquid (water) is called the latent heat of fusion. The latent heat of fusion for water is 79.72 calories per gram.

What this says is that if you take one gram of ice at Oo C and add 79.72 calories of heat the water will change state from a solid to a liquid and will be at exactly the same temperature, 0O C when the change is complete.

The additional 79.72 calories that change the state of the water from solid to liquid are called the latent heat of fusion.

From this point on, the gram of water will increase in temperature by one degree C for every 79.72 calories of heat added.

As the temperature increases so does molecular activity. When the water temperature of the one gram reaches 100o C the water temperature stops rising as you add heat. Once the temperature has reached 100o C you must add 540 calories of heat to see any change. As soon as you have added the 540 calories the water changes from a liquid to a vapor (steam) and the steam is at the temperature of 100O C.

Those 540 additional calories that changed the state of the water from liquid to vapor are called the latent heat of vaporization.

If you remove vapor from the vicinity of the liquid that produced it then you can continue to add as much heat as you want. Adding more heat causes the vapor to become superheated. However, there will be no more changes of state. The vapor will simply contain more energy.

The molecules within water become less active as the temperature decreases. Once the temperature reaches below 0ËšC (32ËšF), water will start to freeze, because this is the freezing point of water. Because the molecules are not moving as much within the water now, the water will become frozen, since the molecules are not free moving. The molecules now vibrate within place rather than shift freely, bumping into each other as it would if it were still a liquid.

Answer 6

Because water is soluble, it evaporates at a much faster rate. Because of this, it also freezes at quite a quick rate.

Answer 7

Cold temperature

Answer 8

cause it gets to cold