Density of Ice by Quantitative Measurement of Mass and Volume of

Ice
Water is one of the few compounds where the density of the solid state is less than
the liquid state. This property of water is apparently crucial for the effect it has in the
environment in cases such as the rise in sea levels due to global warming and aquatic
organisms survival in cold climates. A clear spherical ice was molded with a pure water
called Milli-Q with a resistivity of 18.2M cm at 25C in an insulating spherical ice
molder and a Thermos bottle[10]. By measuring the mass of ice with a digital scale and
the volume difference of canola oil in a 1000ml graduated cylinder with ImageJ for the
volume measurement of ice, the density of ice was calculated using density =
mass/volume. We find the density of ice to be 0.9210.0043g/cm3. The precision of our
measurement was limited by the lack of making multiple measurement of mass and
volume of ice.
PACS numbers: 06.30.-k,42.25.Bs

While ice is a practical application for

cooling the beverage we drink and
soothing the pain and bruises of the
body, water in general is the most
essential need for life of all kinds in the
planet we live in. Coincidentally, the low
density of ice has a huge influence over
the survival of aquatic organisms in
lakes and ponds during winter seasons.
The fact that ice floats on water, the
freezing process of water begins at the
top surface to the bottom. And by
forming ice from the top, in lakes and
ponds, the layer of ice act as an
insulation from colder air temperatures
above. [1]. While this special property
of ice acts like a natures way of
protection, there are other effects in
environment that can be harmful to us
such as the effect global warming has
on glaciers. Because glaciers float on
seawater, if global warming effects were
to melt the glaciers in Antarctica, sea
levels will rise because the low density
of glaciers mean that the volume is
greater than the mass, which indicates
that sea level is lower when glaciers are
floating. [5].
The experimental value of the density
of ice is different for many different
reasons such as temperature difference
and amount of impurities in the ice.
Density of water for example increases
in density as the temperature falls until
it reaches 4C then it decreases in
density until water become solid in form
of ice and loses up to 9% of density.

from the density at 4C. [6]. The loss of

density is due to the formation of water
molecules when it forms into ice. By the
strong hydrogen bonding in ice, the
molecules are arranged into a shape of
ice crystals where there are more free
space in between particles than it had
when the water molecules were freely
moving around in the liquid
state.[2]
The approach we took to measure the
density of ice was to focus on
measuring the mass and volume of ice;
therefore, the goal was to set an
experiment to measure the ice with the
least amount of impurity in the ice and
a method to measure the quantities of
ice without melting. The shape of the
ice did not matter as long as it was
clear because the shape does not effect
the density of ice but having air bubbles
inflate the volume of ice which causes it
to be less denser[3]. After making
calculation with the measured mass and
volume, our value came out to be
0.9210.0043g/cm3 which we can agree
that this result seem reasonable with
the fact that our ice was barely
submerged in the canola oil whose
average density is 0.92g/cm3 [4]. The
accuracy of our measurement was
limited by the uncertainty in the angle
of the photo taken for measuring the
volume of oil in the graduated cylinder.
Our approach was based on the
experiment done by T. Watts et al.
[7]. Snowpacks or any pure ice
material were not available at the
time of this experiment, so the ice
was made with a spherical ice

2
molder and a thermos bottle
inspired by the work of C. English
[9]. The point of this method was
that since the ice begins to form
from the top to bottom, the part of
the ice with air bubbles are pushed
down into the waters in the
Thermos bottle thus keeping the ice
in the spherical mold clear. Milli-Q
was a special pure water we used
to prevent air bubbles in the ice
that was made. The Thermos bottle
was filled with Milli-Q water and the
spherical ice molder was placed on
top, then using a funnel, the water
was filled up to the brim. (Fig. 1).
The spherical ice molder had a hole
plunged at the opposite side to the
regular opening so that the water at
the brim was connected to the
water in the Thermos bottle. This
setup was left in the freezer for
about 12 to 13 hours.
About 30 minutes before we
made the measurement, we chilled
about 700ml of canola oil in a
freezer of temperature at 5C to
make sure it was in the same range
of the temperature with the ice,
which was necessary to eliminate a
potential sample melt.
The mass of the ice was recorded
using a digital scale

FIG. 1: Picture of the ice making setup.

The expansion of water during the
freezing process is responsible for the
ice formed to the side of the
Thermos bottle. Due to this effect, the
ice was made into a hemispherical
shape instead of a full sphere.

with a precision of 0.05g. Two different

measurements of mass was taken, the
mass of ice inside the spherical ice
molder and the mass of spherical ice
molder without the ice. The ice was not
taken out from the molder to prevent
the sample from melting before it was
poured in carefully to the graduated
cylinder. The recorded mass of ice
inside the spherical ice mold was
175.50.05g, and the mass of spherical
ice
mold
without
the
ice
was
132.50.05g.
Before the ice was submerged in the
graduated cylinder, a picture was taken
with an Apple Iphone to have the photo
be analyzed with a image processing
software ImageJ. Because the 1000ml
graduated cylinder was separated by
10ml increments, by finding the length
of each increment of volume by pixels,
the risk of high uncertainty in the
volume reading is avoided. After the
mass measurement was made, the ice
was slowly put into the graduated
cylinder
to
avoid
making
extra
uncertainty in volume by the air
bubbles in canola oil. A picture was
taken again to analyze the volume
reading of canola oil with ice seen in
figure 2.
The mass of the ice was easily
calculated by taking the difference of
the two mass measurements. The value
of the mass came out to be 43.00.07g.
The measurement of volume required
more effort than the measurement of
mass in order to minimize the
uncertainty in the reading. First, the
photo of canola oil without ice was
adjusted to grey scale with adding ad-

FIG. 2: A photo taken after the ice

submerged into the canola oil. The ice
was floating just below the surface
with a little tip sticking out even though
it was pushed
down below the surface. This
indicates that the density of ice
should approximately be little less
than the density of canola oil
(0.92g/cm3).

justment to contrast and brightness

shown in figure 3. A grey value v.
pixel plot can be made with
selected region of interest which in
this case it was a straight line
covering at least two increment
lines. The uncertainty in volume
measurement depended on picking
the narrowest troughs. A graph of
these individual trough is shown in
figure 4, and by fitting a gaussian
equation, the difference of x0 value
would determine the length of two
increment in pixels. The distance of
two increment in pixels came out to
be 123.090.29 pixels per 10ml,
and for greater accuracy in
measurement the distance of pixels
in 1ml was 12.310.29. The
distance
from
the
absolute
increment value to the meniscus of
the canola oil was measured using
ImageJ as 80.21 pixels, and dividing

this value with the value of pixels in

1ml we got the precise value of
volume. The total volume of the
canola oil without the ice was
696.520.024 ml.
The same method was used to
measure the volume of the canola
oil with ice which was recorded as
743.190.19 ml. The uncertainty
was higher than the measurement
without the ice, and this was due to
the similar intensity of grey value of
the increment lines and the
background. The volume of the ice
is then calculated by taking the
difference of the two volume
measurements, which came out to
be 46.670.19 ml.
The density of ice was calculated by
dividing the mass with the volume to
get 0.9210.0043g/cm3. Because

FIG. 3: A photo of the volume of canola

oil without ice with sharp contrast and
low brightness. The use of this
particular setting is to find the peaks of
intensity in grey value. The peaks
indicate grey value of the
increment lines, and analyzing the
distance of two
neighboring peaks by a graph will
indicate the distance of each 10ml
increments in pixel.

4
multiple measurements were not taken,
the confidence of precision is low;
however, the fractional uncertainty of
this single measurement was 0.5%,
which shows that our measured values
were precise.
The result of our measurement is
consistent
with
a
measurement
reported by D. Ginning & R. Corruccini
[11], who used a ice calorimeter to
measure the heat that allows to melt
the ice that is in equilibrium with water
in a closed system. A calibration factor
in this method calculated the density of
ice at 0C to be 0.916710.00005
grams per cm3. This approach measures
the density of ice with immense
precision as the fractional uncertainty
came out to be 0.00006% compared to
our 0.5%. However, the accuracy of our
measurement is consistent with their
measurement as the relative error is
0.5%.
Although our value came close to the
accepted value of the density of ice, our
approach
to
measuring
each
parameters can improve to greater
[1]

this measurement approach would

come from better resolution camera
and a medium of density less than
the density of ice.

FIG. 4: This is a graph of grey value

v. pixels for the picture from figure 3.
The troughs in the two graph are

Chaplin, M. (2016, January 6). Anomalous [2] The Amazing Properties of Water. (n.d.). Retrieved
properties of water. Retrieved June 5, 2016, from
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http://www1.lsbu.
5, 2016, from https://nrich.maths.org/7273
ac.uk/water/water_anomalies.html.
[3] Barett, J.
T.
(n.d.). How
Is
Density Affected

precision and accuracy. A picture taken

with a higher resolution pixel camera
can increase the precision of the
volume reading. Also
working with a lower density of oil will
submerge the ice, which we can get a
definite reading of volume.
In summary, we have measured
the
density
of
ice
to
be
0.9210.0043g/cm3.
Our
first
experiment suffered systematic
errors due to the angle of the
picture that gave inconsistent
measurement of volume, and due
to this error, the result of the first
measurement recorded low in
accuracy. The volume measurement
in the second experiment provided
much
better
result
with
consideration to the picture taken.
The most marked improvements to

from the dark increment lines in

figure 3, which
indicates that the intensity of grey
value is low on the increment lines.
The plotted points match a
gaussian fit, which is used to
measure the distance of the two
increment lines in pixels.
When Air Bubbles Are Trapped Under a
Solid
in
a
Graduated
Cylinder?
Retrieved
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5,
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from
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-graduated-cylinder-17819.html.
[4] Przybylski, R. (n.d.). Canola Oil:
Physical and Chemical Properties. 1-6.
Retrieved
June
5,
2016,
from
http://www.canolacouncil.org/media/51
5239/
canola_oil_physical_chemical_propertie
s_1.pdf.

5
[5] The Life of Glaciers. (n.d.). Retrieved
June
5,
2016,
from
http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/
life-glacier.html.
[6] Perlman, H. (2016, May 2). Water
Density. Retrieved June 6, 2016, from
http://water.usgs.gov/edu/
density.html.
[7] Watts, T. et al. (2015). Improved
Measurement of Ice Layer Density in
Seasonal Snowpacks. The Cyrosphere.
Retrieved
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6,
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http://www.the-cryospherediscuss.net/9/5979/ 2015/tcd-9-59792015.pdf .
[8] G.
Gedanken
et
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Thought
Experiments for Fun and Profit, Am. J.
Phys., 0, 3-14 (2012).

[9] English, C. (2014, September 3). Make

Perfectly
Clear
Ice
Balls
Using
Insulated Mugs. Retrieved June 6,
2016,
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[10] Milli-Q.
(n.d.).
In
Wikipedia.
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[11] Ginnings, D. C., & Corruccini, R. J.
(1946). An Improved Ice Calorimeterthe Determination of its Calibration
Factor and the Density of Ice at 0C.
National Bureau of Standards, 38.
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