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thread100 t1_j98nlb5 wrote

Reply to comment by eeveerose63 in What's the most interesting New Hampshire sound? by dcofm

I recently learned that water is unusual that it expands when it freezes and then shrinks like other solids as it gets colder. Hence the cracking that confused the hell out of me as a youngster. I’m fun at parties.

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SheeEttin t1_j9a7nrb wrote

Water is extremely unusual in a number of ways! Due to the actual shape of a water molecule, it's also unusually polar, allowing it to dissolve just about everything we need to live. And it has one of the strongest surface tensions of common liquids.

And unlike most other substances, the frozen form is less dense than the liquid (as you noted), meaning ice floats! I don't know a single other substance that behaves that way.

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Spoonblade t1_j9a9dfk wrote

And if this were not the case and ice sank then our lakes would eventually freeze solid. Pretty handy that it floats.

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