HOW WATER FREEZES
It used to puzzle all thinking people why ponds and rivers do not freeze beyond a certain depth. This depends on a most curious fact, namely, that water is at its heaviest when it reaches 40deg. Fahrenheit. —that is, Bdeg. above freezing point. On a frosty night, as each, top layer of water falls to 40deg., it sinks to the bottom; therefore the whole pond has to drop to 40deg. before any of it can freeze. At last it_ is all cooled to this point, and then ice begins to form. But ice is a very bad conductor of heat, therefore it shuts off the freezing air from the big body of comparatively warm water underneath. The thicker it gets the more perfectly does it act as a great coat, and that is why even the Arctic Ocean never freezes beyond a few feet in thickness.—“Marine Journal.”
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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1611, 14 January 1903, Page 42 (Supplement)
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150HOW WATER FREEZES New Zealand Mail, Issue 1611, 14 January 1903, Page 42 (Supplement)
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