Question

Ice floes on water but a piece of wax sinks in molten wax. Explain

Answer 1

density of ice is less than water so ice floats on water but density of pieces of wax is more than the the molten wax

Answer 2

Explanation:

The phenomena where ice floats on water and wax sinks in molten wax though both being solid substances is explained on the basis of property known as density.

Density is defined as the ratio of objects's mass and volume.

Mathematically,

$Density=\frac{Mass}{Volume}$

If the density of a substance 1 is more than the density of substance 2, then substance 2 will float on substance 1.

Usually solids have more density than the liquids, but in case of ice, hydrogen bonds breaks which results in the increase f volume and increase in volume results in the lower density of ice.

Density of ice is less than the density of water. Hence, ice floats on water and not sink.

The density of wax is more than the density of molten wax. Therefore, wax is more dense than molten wax and as a result it will sink in molten wax.