Fill each bowl halfway with water. In one bowl, add six
ice cubes. Measure the height of the water. This will
represent the Arctic ice cap melting. Measure the height
of water in the other bowl. Place the wood on top of the
bowl, and place six cubes on the wood, so that meltwater
will fall into the bowl. This will represent the Antarctic
ice cap melting. Once the ice has melted, measure the
height of water in each bowl.
Which bowl had a rise in water level? Did one bowl
stay at the same level or go down?
Remember that when water freezes, it expands. This means
that ice will take up more space than liquid water. Ice
in the water should take up more space than when it melts.
Ice floating on water, like in the Arctic, will not raise
water levels. Ice on land, as it is in Antarctica, will
raise water levels, because as it melts, it will flow
into the surrounding ocean. There is so much water tied
up in Antarctica that melting even a portion of it would
raise sea levels worldwide.
