Ice is water frozen into the solid state. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions. The addition of other materials such as soil may further alter the appearance.
Ice appears in nature in forms of snowflakes, hail, icicles, glaciers, pack ice, frost, and entire polar ice caps. It is an important component of the global climate, and plays an important role in the water cycle. Furthermore, ice has numerous cultural applications, from ice cooling of drinks to winter sports and the art of ice sculpting.
The molecules in solid ice may be arranged in different ways, called phases, depending on the temperature and pressure. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. The most common phase transition to ice Ih occurs when liquid water is cooled below 0°C (273.15K, 32°F) at standard atmospheric pressure. It can also deposit from vapour with no intervening liquid phase, such as in the formation of frost.
The word is derived from Old English īs, which in turn stems from Proto-Germanic isaz.
Read more about Ice: Characteristics, Formation, Production, Ice and Transportation, Phases, Other Ices
Other articles related to "ice, ices":
... An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water ... It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice (one form of sea ice) ... a process referred to as seabed gouging by ice ...
... Blanné - Blížkovice - Bohutice - Bojanovice - Borotice - Boskovštejn - Božice - Břežany - Čejkovice - Čermákovice - Černín - Chvalatice - Chvalovice - Citonice ...
... The 2004 Men's Ice Hockey Championships were held April 24-May 9, 2004, in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic ... Games for this Ice Hockey World Championships tournament were played at Sazka Arena and ČEZ Aréna ...
... Supraglacial moraines are created by debris accumulated on top of glacial ice ... This debris can accumulate due to ice flow toward the surface in the ablation zone, melting of surface ice or from debris that falls onto the glacier from valley sidewalls ...
... other volatile substances are also referred to as ices generally a volatile is classed as an ice if its melting point lies above ~100 K ... The best known example is dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide ... A "magnetic analogue" of ice is also realized in some insulating magnetic materials in which the magnetic moments mimic the position of protons in water ice ...
Famous quotes containing the word ice:
“Adjoining a refreshment stand ... is a small frame ice house ... with a whitewashed advertisement on its brown front stating, simply, “Ice. Glory to Jesus.” The proprietor of the establishment is a religious man who has seized the opportunity to broadcast his business and his faith at the same time.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“When the ice is covered with snow, I do not suspect the wealth under my feet; that there is as good as a mine under me wherever I go. How many pickerel are poised on easy fin fathoms below the loaded wain! The revolution of the seasons must be a curious phenomenon to them. At length the sun and wind brush aside their curtain, and they see the heavens again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)