just by looking at it ...it doesn't seem that much.

 

Ice does "weigh" less than water. Weight is mass in relation to gravity, and both ice and water have the same density. However, when water freezes, the same mass occupies more space, but keeps the same mass, thus, becoming less dense. This is why ice floats in water. One gallon of frozen water is 7.487 (fresh) as opposed to unfrozen 8.3

A gallon of unfrozen salt water weighs in at 8.55lbs, and frozen salt water (yes, its possible) at about 7.8lbs.

Regardless, there are probably over 200 gallons of water on those cars, if not nore. A 75 gallon fishtank is only about 4 feet wide, by 2.5 feet high, by 2 feet deep. You can fill that tank with just melting the ice off the front clip. The ice sculpture I had at my restaurant a few weeks ago, was over 1200lbs uncut, and I dont think there was nearly as much ice as on these cars.

 

^^maybe...but in the second picture you can see the door handle of the SUV.which would make me guess that it's a couple of inchs of ice coated on the car maybe 3 inchs max.I'm guessing the cars measurements are about 5X9 or so from bumper to bumper and door to door.I'm not a math mathematician but that doesn't seem like it's gonna = 1000lbs.

 

Hmm...I dunno...

The SUV is about 6feet high, by 12 feet long, by 5 feet wide.

The hood has a GOOD 4-5 inches of ice (as well as all the flat panels).

To get a 4" thick slab of ice, you need a whole bunch on gallons. Spill a gallon of water on the floor...you will MAYBE cover a 10x10 foot section with a film of water. Now imagine building that up to 4-6" of it.

 

^^ you have a point.

 

wowi cant believe people are walking around in short sleeve shirts in the background

 

 

Thats crayzee!
Now lets guess what kind of cars are under that ice
First one: MR2 Second one: Ford Escape Third: Land Rover Freelander

 

The density of ice is about 9/10 the density of liquid water; that hardly qualifies as much less.

About 0 degrees C; 32 degrees F.

 

calculate ice on a typical car

ice is 90% the volume of water or when water turnes to ice it expands my 10% this is neglagable and ignored here

1gal is 6lbs
1gal is .133 cubic foot
typical car truck 9x14 foot and when covered with 4" of ice the volume is 9x14x.33=42
thats 42 cubic foot or 316gallons of water

316 gal is about 2000 pounds

conclusion: no damage due to weight
an additional 2000 pounds is a big mass but within the towing of many lite weight trucks