Page 100 - A Chain of Miracles

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A A Chain of Miracles

Water freezes from the surface down, so that ice always floats and never
sinks. If, like all other liquids, water became denser as it grows colder—in
other words, if ice sank—then ice in oceans, seas and lakes would sink to
the bottom. The surface would continue to freeze and sink, since there
would be no surface ice layer to block out the cold. A large part of the
Earth’s oceans, seas and lakes would turn into huge masses of ice. No life
could exist in the seas of such a world. In an ecological system where the
seas were dead, life on land would not be possible either. In short, the Earth
would be a dead planet—if water behaved “normally.”

should sink in water according to “normal” laws of physics, it
floats.

This property of water is really crucial for the seas of the
world. If it did not have this property, a great part of the water
on the planet would freeze and life in lakes and oceans would
cease. This fact needs to be looked at in greater detail. In many
parts of the world, in cold winter days, temperatures fall below

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