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Does being cold make things smaller
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"Didn't you ever do physics in school? Of course things get smaller when they get cold. It's called the thermal expansion and contraction of solids. "
However water is anomalous in that it contracts as it cools from room temperature to 4° Celsius, then it starts expanding slightly as it cools further, and on the phase change to ice at 0° Celsius it has a sudden step expansion by about 10%.
Most other liquids contract steadily as they cool and continue contracting through their phase change to solid. Interestingly, it is believed that if it were not for the strange behaviour of water as it changes to ice, life as we know it would not exist. |
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"Didn't you ever do physics in school? Of course things get smaller when they get cold. It's called the thermal expansion and contraction of solids.
However water is anomalous in that it contracts as it cools from room temperature to 4° Celsius, then it starts expanding slightly as it cools further, and on the phase change to ice at 0° Celsius it has a sudden step expansion by about 10%.
Most other liquids contract steadily as they cool and continue contracting through their phase change to solid. Interestingly, it is believed that if it were not for the strange behaviour of water as it changes to ice, life as we know it would not exist."
Polly, I bloody love you! 
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