• Question: Why does warm water rise?

    Asked by anon-207621 to Silvia, Scott, Oliver, Natalie, Michelle, Lowri on 14 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Michelle Valkanas

      Michelle Valkanas answered on 14 Mar 2019:


      I am impressed with this question! So the reason that warm water rises is because cold water is more dense. Density is basically the amount of “stuff” (atoms) in one space (in this case water). The colder the water gets (to a certain point) the more stuff that gets squished into the same amount of space. The less dense warm water thus floats to the top and the cold water sinks. 🙂

    • Photo: Natalie Lamb

      Natalie Lamb answered on 14 Mar 2019:


      As Michelle said, warm water rises because when you heat water it expands. When the water expands, it becomes less dense than the water around it. The less dense warm water then rises like wood floats on water because wood is less dense than water.

    • Photo: Scott Graham

      Scott Graham answered on 15 Mar 2019:


      warm water rises due to the application of heat. the heat source such as the sun warms the water which causes molecules to get excited and move around more. this creates space between the molecule instead of being packed together. this space is what makes warmer water less dense causing it to rise from the cooler water.

      think of oil and water when you mix them together the oil will eventually float to top as it is less dense than water and cause a 2 layer appearance. it is sort of similar to that

    • Photo: Oliver Andrews

      Oliver Andrews answered on 15 Mar 2019:


      Great question! As the others have said it is less dense. Warm water (and fresh rather than salty water) is less dense (or less heavy)

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