Shouldn’t the ice cubes be more dense than the water because they’re the solid form of water?
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Solids are *usually* denser than liquids but there are exceptions. Water is pretty much the only everyday example of this but there are others. Solid silicon, for instance, is less dense than liquid silicon but since silicon melts at 2,500F you’re unlikely to ever notice that.
Ice is less dense than liquid water because when water freezes, its molecules form crystals with an unusually open lattice structure, which ends up being less dense than the liquid state. Technically this is only true for one type of ice, which is known as “hexagonal ice” or “ice I”. There are other crystal shapes, like ice II and III, which are denser than water. However, these shapes don’t form under normal Earth conditions (usually requiring extremely high pressures and/or low temperatures).
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