Floating Ice for Kids | Why Does Ice Float? 🧊 | The Dropples S1 E7

Why does ice float? Science for kids, with a frozen puddle! 🧊 Drip finds a hard, shiny lid on his puddle. Is it glass? Frost the ice cube knows: it's ice, and ice floats on top! Play "Where's the ice?" with Drip the water drop, Puff (his invisible water-vapour friend) and Frost. An ice cube in a glass, a great big block and a teeny tiny chip, a frozen puddle, a bowl left out all night, and a pond with sleepy fish. Guess, watch, and shout "ON TOP!" along with them! ⚠️ Safety first: never walk or play on ice on puddles or ponds. It can crack, and nobody can tell how thick it is. Grown-ups stay right next to children near water, and children never climb into tubs or buckets of water. Try the experiments only with a grown-up, use a plastic tub (never glass), and empty the tub afterwards. 🧊 Try it at home with a grown-up: put an ice cube in a glass of water and ask "Where's the ice?" Or ask a grown-up to put a big plastic tub of water outside on a freezing night, and peek early! ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Who put a lid on my puddle? 0:14 Why ice floats on top 1:10 Round 1 · An ice cube in a glass 1:37 Round 2 · Big block, tiny chip 2:23 Round 3 · The frozen puddle 2:51 Round 4 · A bowl outside all night 3:28 Round 5 · Fish under the pond ice 4:12 Frost tries to sink 4:25 Try it at home 4:42 Frosty, floaty goodbye 👪 For grown-ups Ice is a bit lighter than the same size of water (water expands as it freezes), so ice floats, most of it just under the surface. Cold air touches the top of a puddle or pond, so the top freezes first, and the floating ice lid helps keep the cold air off the water below. That is why many ponds do not freeze solid, and fish can rest near the bottom. Counting (one, two, three fish), bigger and smaller, and on top, at the bottom and underneath are in every round. Questions to ask after watching: Where is the ice? Do big and small pieces both float? Where were the fish? 📚 Science sources (for grown-ups) • Why ice floats (ice is less dense than liquid water): Ohio State University, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears (NSF), All About Icebergs — https://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/?p... • Ice floats and lakes freeze from the top: NH LAKES (lakes nonprofit), How Do Lakes Freeze? — https://www.nhlakes.org/wp-content/up... • Why ice forms on the surface: University of Illinois Physics Van, Freezing Lakes — https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/l... • Ice floats in sea water too, mostly below the surface: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Icebergs — https://gml.noaa.gov/education/info_a... • Ice lid and fish resting at the bottom: NOAA National Ocean Service, Where do fish go when it freezes outside? — https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/f... • Ice safety: Met Office, Winter water safety — https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/warn... • Ice safety: RoSPA, Winter water safety tips — https://www.rospa.com/water-safety/wi... • Ice safety: Wisconsin DNR, No Ice Is 100% Safe — https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/newsroom/re... #ScienceForKids #IceFloats #TheDropples