Nine-tenths of an iceberg is under water.
I know that, but is it true? In this case, it seems so.
Density also explains why most of an iceberg is found beneath the ocean’s surface. Because the densities of ice and sea water are so close in value, the ice floats “low” in the water. Remember that the density of ice is 0.92 g/mL, and the density of water is 1.0 g/mL (1.03 for salt water). This means that ice has nine-tenths, or 90 percent of water’s density – and so 90 percent of the iceberg is below the water’s surface. – All About Icebergs, in Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears
Once they got into density I admit that I started to skim-read, but I was still paying enough attention to see some humour in “Remember that the density of ice is 0.92 g/mL” (helpfully highlighted above in case you, too, were skimming) until I realized that the expectation wasn’t that I would accurately remember something from my long-gone school days: They had just covered this point two paragraphs up.
