ONE MORE TIME:
TAKE LARGE GLASS or even a glass bowl.
Fill it with ice cubes,
Then fill with water to the lip.
Let ice melt.
Level of only water is LOWER.
NONE of you ever grew up with “ICE CUBE TRAYS”.
Ice cube trays are a vast white ring conspiracy.
That’s right. A volume of water will expand when it freezes and contract to its original volume as it melts. It’s why frozen glass bottles of Coke, Pepsi, and other carbonated beverages (for example) break. The water in it freezes into ice and expands as it does so, breaking the glass (because it cannot contain the ice in its new volume).