I conducted the experiment with the ice block and water and was more than a little surprised at the results. Firstly, the ice block did not cause the water to flow over the top of the container like I surmised it would, and secondly the block rose from the bottom to the top without melting or breaking apart. If one were to use the information gleaned from this experiment to theorize what would happen if the polar ice caps melted then one would have to assume that the effect would be the same in that the amount of space that is currently taken by the ice caps would be taken by the water produced by the melt. Therefore, there would be no flood effect and as such the world would be safe. However, one has to be careful not to generalize the results of this experiment to the polar ice caps as there may be variables at play in the real world that are not being accounted for in this experiment.
After having completed the inquiry for this week, I wonder if this effect has been tried on a much larger scale and were the results published? It would be interesting to note the results of such an experiment to note if they were the same as realized in my experiment.
Mellica,
ReplyDeleteI like your question. I'm sure scientists have conducted this experiment on a larger scale, I would like to know their results. Also, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that was impressed with the results. Of course, when I do stop and think about, I should have recalled the principal of water displacement.
Mellica,
ReplyDeleteI was surprised also by these results. I think we all forgot the concept of water displacement while completing this activity. It would be nice to see if someone has performed an experiment like this and anaylzed their data. For my service learning project, I am going to have my students research this very topic.