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How Ice Melts

Posted by Zonk on from the i-can-sleep-tonight dept.

Killer Instinct writes "Ever wonder how ice melts? Until now, scientists could not explain why ice cubes in your drink melt. They've known the basics, but the details remained elusive. A breakthrough new study, announced yesterday, supports a leading theory that melting starts when the fundamental structure of matter begins to crack. Melting is considered a basic phenomenon in physics. An understanding of how it works is crucial to gaining a firm grasp on the physical world."

20 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmmmm... by chriswaclawik · · Score: 4, Funny
    Ever wonder how ice melts?

    No.

    --
    A guy walks into a bar... well, I forgot the joke, but the punchline is that he's an alcoholic.
    1. Re:Hmmmmm... by turtled · · Score: 5, Funny

      I didn't read the full article earlier, was this one of the top 125 Big Science questions?

      --
      "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
    2. Re:Hmmmmm... by mizhi · · Score: 4, Funny
      An understanding of how it works is crucial to gaining a firm grasp on the physical world.
      Really? I don't really understand it and I seem to be able to grasp objects just fine.
      --
      Humorless sig goes here.
    3. Re:Hmmmmm... by cpugeniusmv · · Score: 2, Funny

      I believe it was the forty-second one.

  2. Anti-Cold by TimeTraveler1884 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Ever wonder how ice melts?
    Not really. But I have a hypothesis that it has something to do with heat or as I call it, "anti-cold." There seems to be a relationship between 0 degrees Celsius and ice melting. Likewise a relationship with 100 degrees Celsius and water boiling (when under one atmosphere of pressure). There must be some underlying mathematical connection; for these events and their temperatures surely can not be coincidence. Some day I will solve this mystery, but only when I am properly funded by government grants.

    1. Re:Anti-Cold by guardiangod · · Score: 1, Funny

      That's because Celsius was defined with water in mind.


      The Celsius temperature scale was designed so that the freezing point of water is 0 degrees, and the boiling point is 100 degrees at standard atmospheric pressure.

      So yah, there is a relationship- ( x1 - x2 )/ 100 :)

      Unless, of course, this is a work of sarcasm.

    2. Re:Anti-Cold by TimeTraveler1884 · · Score: 3, Funny
      Unless, of course, this is a work of sarcasm.
      [sarcasm]Nooooooo...[/sarcasm]
    3. Re:Anti-Cold by learn+fast · · Score: 4, Funny

      The real reason of course, which you wouldn't know from reading the pseudo-scientific raving of the parent poster, is that melting is an adaptive response to a changing environment.

      You see, most water was burned at an earlier time. So, when it encounters heat it melts out of fear! It melts to more effectively evade what it expects might be a dangerous encounter. This also explains why water melts faster when it is shaken upside-down and verbally threatened.

      Some people think that this proves that water is less-than-rational, however it's clear to me that it is an adaptive response. The kind of therapy that would get it out of that kind of feedback loop is much to expensive for most water to afford, anyway. Most people don't realize that there are whole water galaxies, where water can more easily acheive economic unanimity.

      This simple theory explains so much evidence. Why do we see so little water inside of volcanoes? Inside of airplane engines? Or inside of stoves? It's because water fears heat! Based on an earlier, traumatic reaction that must have occurred sometime in its past.

      I'll be here waiting for my Nobel Prize. Is the king of Sweden's daughter hot? Prolly.

    4. Re:Anti-Cold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      >A couple of days ago was the 100th anniversary of Einstein's publication of the theory of special relativity. Did that "matter" at the time?

      Not really, but it's all relative anyway.

  3. What else don't we know? by bensafrickingenius · · Score: 2, Funny

    I guess I thought we woulda had this one nailed down by now! What will scence reveal that we don't know next?

    --
    I am not left-handed, either!
  4. I know!!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'll teach those who don't know. ice melts so it matches the room tempr.

  5. It's about time... by SpartanVII · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can finally sleep at night!

  6. Wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait wait wait, let me get this straight. We put a man on the moon, developed flying machines composed of several hundred tons of steel, and we just now BARELY explain why Ice Cubes melt in our drink? You know, sometimes humanity really is....scary. What'll be truly frightning is if scientists come out with an explanation as to why Ice Cube still gets movie roles.

  7. Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now how long till they can whip-up a batch of Ice-Nine and freeze the whole planet?

  8. I am sure that Frosty the Snowman... by Brad1138 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is thrilled to know exactly how he will die come spring.

    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
  9. Finally... by Treskin · · Score: 2, Funny

    the aliens will make contact. It would have been emberassing to make contact with planet that couldn't quite pin down the subtleties of how ice melts.

  10. Re:Captain Obvious to the Resue! by no-karma-no-worries · · Score: 2, Funny
    Step 1: Ice gets warmer.
    Step 2: Warm ice turns into liquid water.

    Step 3: Profit!

  11. Next on slashdot... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    how paint dries!

  12. Buy her a drink, or tell a joke... by PoorLenore · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...that's generally how I get the ice to melt.

  13. Things we always wanted to know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Next - how paint dries!