Why does water become less dense when it’s frozen?

Question

Piggybacking off of a recent question asking whether drinking cold water means drinking the most water.

In: Physics

Answer 1

When water freezes its molecules form in a lattice arrangement, it just so happens that in this lattice the molecules of water are further apart than when it was liquid. In very basic terms, there’s more space between the molecules when water is frozen than when it is liquid