Why ice floats on water for class 9

Why ice floats on water?

Answer - Though ice is solid matter, but it has cage-like structure. Due to this structure, it has a large amount of spaces between its particles. These spaces are larger than the spaces present between the molecules of water. Thus the volume of ice is higher than that of water. Hence the density of the ice is less than that of water. A substance with lower density than water can float on water. Therefore ice floats on water.