Jacob has a bucket of ice. He covers the bucket with a lid and sets it in the sun. The ice melts into liquid water. How does the mass of the ice compare with the mass of the water?

Question

Jacob has a bucket of ice. He covers the bucket with a lid and sets it in the sun. The ice melts into liquid water. How does the mass of the ice compare with the mass of the water?
 A. 
There is no way to determine this from the information given.
 B. 
The mass of the ice is more than the mass of the water.
 C. 
The mass of the ice is the same as the mass of the water.
 D. 
The mass of the ice is less than the mass of the water.

GPT-4o mini · Answer

C. The mass of the ice is the same as the mass of the water.

When ice melts, it turns into water, but the total mass remains the same. The mass of the ice before melting is equal to the mass of the water produced after it melts, assuming no mass is added or removed from the system (like evaporation or spillage).