The first is generally true for floating ice.

The second one is obviously wrong. What is your ocean radius?

We can calculate step by step in this way.

The earth's radius is 6,356.750 - 6,378.135  km. That's about 20.9 
million feet.

((1+20,900,000) / 20,900,000) ^ 3 = 1.000000144  --- A 1-foot 
increase in earth radius would result in 0.0000144% increase in earth's volume.

((20+20,900,000) / 20,900,000) ^ 3 = 1.00002871 --- A 20-foot 
increase in earth radius would result in 0.0002871% increase in earth's volume.

((40+20,900,000) / 20,900,000) ^ 3 = 1.00005742  --- A 40-foot 
increase in earth radius would result in 0.0005742% increase in earth's volume.

If you assume the ocean a layer of water on top of a idealized earth 
globe, considering the ocean water's total volume ( 1,347,000,000 
km^3) is about 1/800 of the earth's volume, therefore, for the ocean 
radius to increase 20 feet, the ocean volume will increase about  ( ( 
0.000002871 - 0.000000144) / (1/800) ) ) more than for a 1-foot 
radius increase, which is 0.002182, a 0.22% increase.

A 40-feet increase would make it about 0.45%.

However, it can be approximated in a much easier ways if you use the 
average depth of that idealized ocean water layer at about 2.6 km or 
8530 feet, considering it's such a thin layer on top of the more 
solidified earth.

((20-1)  / 8530) * 100%  = 0.223%

Further, considering the average depth of the real ocean is about 4 
km or 13123.4 feet, due to the existence of the continents. This 
percentage would be only 0.14%.

The numbers used above may not be most accurate ones, but that would 
not change the result much. An increase of 0.14% is not necessarily 
small, but definitely not as inconvenient and appalling as 8,000 
times, or 64,000 times.

Wei

At 04:39 PM 3/21/2007, you wrote:
>Inconvenient Facts  regarding rising ocean level:
>
>1.  The ocean level is unchanged when floating ice melts.
>
>2.  The ocean is a spherical body of water.  The ocean volume varies as
>the cube of the ocean radius.  Therefore, for the ocean radius to increase
>20 feet, the ocean volume must increase 8,000 times more than for a 1-foot
>radius increase.  For the ocean radius to increase 40 feet, the ocean
>volume must increase 64,000 times more than for a 1-foot radius increase.

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