Most items when exposed to cold shrink but water expands

Question

Things when exposed to cold shrink which can be hard on homeowners if you live somewhere that is cold. If you put a bottle of water in the fridge it expands but I heard other items when exposed to freezing temperatures shrink is this true?

Answer 1

Water contracts as it shrinks until roughly 4 degrees celsius, at which point it begins to decrease in density. When water freezes, it undergoes a state change and its molecules crystalize into an open hexagonal lattice, reducing density. The article doesn't discuss the density of water as temperatures drop, only solid building materials. The thermal energy of the molecules that make up a material drops with its temperature. This keeps the molecules closer together, causing the material to shrink. Thus, the author's claim that materials shrink as their temperature drops is accurate.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Chemical/waterdens.html#c1

https://cs.stanford.edu/people/zjl/pdf/temperature.pdf