I think the water will float because of how the atoms are structured making it less dense than liquid water. I think  the ranch will sink because it’s thick. The soy sauce probably won't float because it didn’t freeze. I think the Greek salad dressing and milk will float because they seem to have more water. I think the egg will sink because it seems thicker. I think the dish soap will float because of how it looks similar to water when it freezes. I think the canola oil will float because it seems less dense. I think the syrup will sink because it’s more viscous than water.

When water freezes it makes a V shape with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom and these form together with another one to make a hydrogen bond. In water atoms get tightly packed together due to motion allowing them to fill in gaps making liquid water denser; but in ice, molecules lock in place forming a solid strong hexagonal structure forcing molecules to stay farther apart meaning lower density.

Manipulated variable: We changed what liquids we froze so instead of just water we had dish soap, canola oil, egg, milk, ranch, Greek salad dressing, water syrup, and soy sauce

Controlled variables: we froze them all for the same amount of time (24hrs), we also had similar water temperature (cold tap water), filled the glass the same each time and froze an even amount of liquid for each liquid type (20mL)

Responding variable: is whether it floated or sank (see table)

1. Use a tablespoon to measure how much liquid can fit in each ice compartment in a clean\, empty ice cube tray. It was about 20 mL. 2. Put 20 mL of each liquid (water\, dish soap\, Greek salad dressing\, ranch\, maple syrup\, soy sauce\, canola oil\, egg\, milk) into separate ice cube sections. 3, Freeze them in the freezer for 24 hours. 4. Fill a clear glass approximately 3/4 full with cool tap water. 5. Take the frozen cubes out of the freezer. 8. Gently set the first cube in the water. 7. After you've seen if it floats or not\, then take it out and clean out the glass with hot water and soap.. 8. Refill the glass and repeat until you've finished seeing if all the cubes float or not. 9. Be sure to put the tray back in the freezer between experiments to make sure they don't melt before you test them.

The syrup and the soy sauce did not freeze so when I put them in they mixed with the water. The syrup did sink to the bottom as well as mixing in with the water. The Greek salad dressing was the only solid that sunk. All of the other frozen solids floated. They floated on the top without sinking even an inch. The dish soap had lots of bubbles in the water. The mild started to melt very fast.

I expected the water to float, but I was surprised that most of the others also floated. The only frozen solid that didn't float was the Greek salad dressing, probably because it wasn't all water and it was full of lots of solids like bits of pepper, onion, and spices. I hypothesized that the egg and ranch would sink because they looked thicker than water but they ended up floating anyway. The only one I was right about sinking was the syrup probably because it didn't freeze fully. I learned that a lot of things will float when frozen. Some frozen liquids will float even though they seem dense. Some liquids like the syrup and soy sauce might need a much colder freezer to freeze.

The dish soap froze and was easy to take out of the ice cube tray so this could be a good way to portion the soap for washing the dishes. Just pop a frozen cube of soap in your sink of hot water and you are ready to wash!

I could make frozen cubes of other liquids that might be yummy to put in drinks - like frozen cubes of lemonades.

Even though I tried to make them equal, some of the sections in the ice cube tray were a little fuller than others. The water in the glass wasn't exactly the same temperature for each test.

Why Ice Floats on Water — The Rare Physics That Makes Life Possible https://sciencebehindlife.com/why-ice-floats-on-water-the-rare-physics-that-makes-life-possible/

Water and Ice: Density and Molecular Structure https://ourwinterworld.org/2022/08/water-and-ice/

I would like to thank my parents for helping me throughout this experiment. I'd also like to thank my older brother for inspiring me to enter the science fair. I would like to thank my science teacher for giving me the idea to do this project when they taught about how ice floats.