does ice melt faster in air or in water

1 ANSWERS

1. GiGi
   

   Water will have more contact with the ice cube and absorbs heat better and hence, will be able to transport or transfer its heat to the cooler ice cube quicker.
   Initially, both air and water contact surfaces are equal in size. However, just as soon as melting of ice begins, the meltwater " skin " produced reduces the contact surface area of the surrounding warmer air, insulating slightly and absorbing some of the heat itself. As the meltwater flows down and off the ice cube, it is carrying some of that absorbed heat away from the ice, slowing down the overall melting process in air.
   Interestingly, ice cubes floating in water, will have both air and water contact surfaces. If you could study a side view of the melting ice cube, you would see that the portion below the water surface melts faster ( becomes smaller in size). To compensate for this loss of below-surface mass of the ice cube, it sinks slightly. It appears the air is winning the race but this is not true. The faster heat transfer of the water medium is actually pulling the cube down. This would be clearly demonstrated if you set the cube up (with an onion bag supporting net ) such that it was supported from dropping down lower and lower into the water as it melted.
   Then you would see the below surface portion virtually disappear. As this happens the top-heavy portion will want to turn turtle to compensate for the disappearing bottom half of the cube.

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