Quote:
Originally posted by Peetster
You are correct if you assume that some or most of the ice is forced under water by the weight of the ice above it. It will then displace more water than it weighs. a is correct.
As the ice melts, the volume will decrease, but you will still have the same mass of water. Therefore d and e are right out.
b would be correct if there was a small amount of ice floating freely in the water, as Yakk suggested with his ship analogy.
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Damn it! I didn't think of that. Knowing this, I think the actual answer is
b.
What's going on is that, yes, ice is less dense than water and, thus, it floats. If it floats, how much of it is floating above the water? Well, just enough so that the "virtual density," that is the mass of the ice divided by the
volume of ice that's still submerged in water, is the same as water! You can figure the rest out...