Re: Does the human body expand when it freezes?

Hi Brian,

Yes, absolutely: as the water freezes, it will expand. According to another
answer on this site, the human body is composed of ~60 - 85% water,
depending on age, gender and physique. That water will expand as it goes
through a phase change. Water expands about 9% as it changes from liquid to
solid, so the body will expand by somewhere between 5-8% (the other
components of the body, such as fat, don't expand when they freeze).

If you think about this in terms of weight gain, you can see that this
would not be a huge expansion. A 150 lb person who added 7% to his or her
body mass would weigh 160 lbs... this isn't really equivalent to freezing,
because that doesn't involve any increase in mass, but it should help
visualize how much bigger a person would get. The skin is stretchy, so they
wouldn't explode like a water pipe.

At the cellular level, the effects are different. Cells can explode when
they freeze, not so much because of the expansion of the water as because
ice crystals will tear the cell membrane. 

Hope this helps.

Mike