Question

Nita’s younger sister was having cold drinks with ice cubes floating over the liquid. The little girl asked Nita ―Every solid form has higher density than its corresponding liquid form, but why is it that ice alone is lighter and floats on water? Nita tried to explain the reason based on a special type of bonding in water.
a) What is that special bonding Nita is referring to? Draw a pictorial representation of that.
b) Nita also explained the importance of water as a good solvent. What would she have given the reason for its polarity?
c) What value does Nita have towards the subject and towards her sister?

Answer 1

The cage like structure formed due to the hydrogen bonding leaves allot of empty spaces between the molecules.
This tends to lower the average density of water thus ice.