Page 10 - My FlipBook

occupies a lot more space, than water. In fact, if you start with water at any
temperature, the space occupied by the water, is less than the space occupied by
the ice formed by cooling that water. That is why ice floats on water. This is
called the anomalous behaviour of water. Anomalous means unusual or
abnormal." Papa chimed in.

"So Tania, can you figure out what happened in the pipes last night?" Mama
asked.

Tania thought for a moment. "Last night, since it was very very cold, the water
filled up in the pipe at 4 degree Celsius. Then, when it got even colder, the
water started occupying more space, putting pressure on the pipe. Since the taps
were closed the increased volume of water could not get out. Oh! I see that's
why you said we should have left the taps on a trickle. Okay, so, when the water
froze, the ice needed to occupy a lot more space, making the pressure too much
for the pipe to cope with, so it burst. Is that right?" Tania asked, her eyes
shinning .

"Yes. Quite right, Tania." Mama nodded impressed.

"But if the pipe walls were trying to push on the ice and make it smaller, should
it not have become water again?" Tania wondered.

"That is very astute Tania. To some extent that would happen, but then if it was
too cold, it would still freeze and burst out of the pipe." Mama said thoughtfully.
Then she looked at Papa. "You know, there is an experiment we could do, to
show Tania, that what she is saying, makes a lot of sense."

"Yes." Papa agreed. I'll go see if I can find some thread." Papa stacked up the
breakfast dishes and went to look for thread. Everyone had finished breakfast
and Sonia, not too interested in the discussion, had started playing with her
blocks.

"And I'll go get an ice cube." Mama put the dishes to soak in the sink, with
some water left from the melted snow, and went to the refrigerator.

"What? What are you two talking about?" Tania asked, bewildered.

"Just you see." Papa winked returning with a roll of black thread from the
sewing kit.

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