Melting Icebergs

9. Extended Questions

a. What happens if the polar ice caps melt?  In my opinion if the polar ice cap melts, I feel there could be some displacement of the water.  The reason I feel this way is by the same reasoning of placing ice in a glass of water.  The polar ice cap is located on land. So this means the ice is not in the water so if the ice breaks off and forms a glacier, then the glacier floats in the water which will call a displacement of the amount of water.  How much no one knows. I feel the biggest impact our Earth will have if it was to melt is the temperature rising.  This could change out whole earth, from the currents in the oceans to the land on the continents (Brain, 2012).

b. What other questions do you have about this Science Inquiry Experience?

I have one main question, what would happen if you place the liquid in the glass first and then place the ice?  How would this change the results?

References:

Brain, M. (2012). If the polar ice caps melted, ow much would the oceans rise? Retrieved from How Stuff Works: http://science.owstuffworks.com/environment

Stickland, J. & Grabianowski, E. (2012). How Global Warming Works. Retrieved from How Stuff Works: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/global-warming5.htm

 Melting Iceberg Experiment

a. Document observations in Science Journal.

 I placed 10 ice cubes in a pan the night before and placed a little water on them to make the ice cubes freeze together. 

At 4:52 pm on July 12, 2012.  I took the ice cubes out of the freeze and moved it to a bowl.  Next I placed water up to the rim of the bowl.  I placed the bowl in the living room.  The temperature of the room was 72 degrees. 

The first observation I made was the ice floated. About one third of the water was above water

and the rest of the ice was in the water.  In fact the ice did look like a glacier.

Within a minute one of the cubes of ice had already pulled apart. 

At 5:00 pm about half of the ice had melted.  I also noticed at the base of the ice (under water) had started forming bubbles.  Around this time another piece of the ice broke from the cube.  The homemade glacier started moving counter clock wise in a circle, then the glacier turned upside down.  This make the glacier look different. The ice starts becoming thin on the part which is above the water. 

I let the experiment go on until it had melted, which was 6:35 pm. The water in the blow did not cause the water to overflow.   Before I started the experiment I made the prediction the water would not over flow.  The reason I made this predictions is because I thought about having an ice cold glass of tea.  When I drink tea I fill the glass to the top with ice then I place the tea in.  I knew from experience the liquid would not overflow in the glass.