The research team behind the latest paper, based both at UCL and the University of Cambridge, discovered medium-density amorphous ice in 2023. This ice was found to have the same density as liquid water (and would therefore neither sink nor float in water).
If something doesn't sink or float what does it do? The rest of this article I could somewhat follow, but this part makes no sense to me.
3
ada - 5mon
Sink = go down
Float = go up
Something with the same density as the fluid it's contained in won't spontaneously do either of those things
10
spicy pancake - 5mon
go up = SHE'S A WITCH!
9
InternetCitizen2 @lemmy.world - 5mon
Goes down, a heavy witch and should be left to drown
4
Rolivers - 5mon
It's made of wood.
3
AlbinoPython @lemmy.world - 5mon
It would be considered neutrally buoyant so it would act kind of "weightless".
8
Gsus4 - 5mon
Usually, ice floats on water: the density is lower than water (0.916 g/cm³, the crystalline structure of ice makes each molecule take up more volume), so the volume of some mass of ice is larger than its original water mass would have, so a fraction sticks out of the surface.
But this amorphous type of ice would not stick out of the water.
cm0002 in space
'Space ice' is less like water than previously thought
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-space-ice-previously-thought.htmlIf something doesn't sink or float what does it do? The rest of this article I could somewhat follow, but this part makes no sense to me.
Sink = go down
Float = go up
Something with the same density as the fluid it's contained in won't spontaneously do either of those things
go up = SHE'S A WITCH!
Goes down, a heavy witch and should be left to drown
It's made of wood.
It would be considered neutrally buoyant so it would act kind of "weightless".
Usually, ice floats on water: the density is lower than water (0.916 g/cm³, the crystalline structure of ice makes each molecule take up more volume), so the volume of some mass of ice is larger than its original water mass would have, so a fraction sticks out of the surface.
But this amorphous type of ice would not stick out of the water.