Question

In a container containing water, an ice cube containing an iron pallet is floating. What will happen to the level of water when the ice cube melts? Explain.

Answer 1

Since density of ice is lesser than water, melting of floating ice will not affect the water level of the container. But as iron pallet was on top of the ice, it made the ice cube enter more into the water by its weight. This forced entering of ice into water kept water level higher than it would have been if the ice floated without the iron pallet. Now if the ice melts it does not raise the level but as the level was already higher due to the pallet on top, melting of ice would decrease the water level. (Here we assumed the volume of the pellet to be negligible)