toriver said:
Drexer said:
Weight=Gravitic Force=F(g)
F(g)=m*a
m=mass(Kg)
a=9.8(m.s^-2) Which is pretty much a constant on earth surface for any macroscopic calculations.
If you have more ice packed into a smaller volume then you have more mass. You have to remember that the earth is a closed system, we only exchange energy with the outside, not matter(except for the occasional satellite or meteor. So the whole idea of there being more or less mass over the Earth's crust based on the state of the matter is well... silly.
But then that should be applied to the idea of the ice caps melting putting less strain on the continental plates to make that idea make some sense. Even if I may have been mistaken about the actual idea of a kilo of ice or water having a different weight, that formula shows that if you take that weight and spread it out, the mass from the polar ice caps would be spread out over a larger surface area, easing the burden on the continental plates.
Okay, not sure if the icecaps have anything to do with the earthquakes (though I highly doubt it), let's clear a few things up here.
First of all, two things of equal mass with ALWAYS have equal weight on the planet Earth. One of these two things may be a larger size and thus less dense, but the weight of the object will be identical to the wight of another object with equal mass. i.e., a kilo of water weighs just as much as a kilo of ice.
Second, ice is LESS DENSE than water. It is one of the very few things that actually spreads out as it becomes a solid. This is why ice cubes float. Saying that ice becoming water will "spread out" the mass is silly, since water is denser than ice.
