Ice cubes

[naz_nomad]

If I put 3 or 4 small ice cubes in a drink they melt quickly...If I put 1huge ice cube in a drink it takes forever to melt ...am I right in assuming this has to do with the surface area of the ice cube?

Also ... at a constant temperature ..would a fizzy drink dissolve an ice cube quicker than a non-fizzy one?


thanks for looking ... Naz

[naz_nomad]

Precise & to the point ...nice

[fo3nix]

I would think the fizzy drink would make it last a bit longer. Try it!

[naz_nomad]

fo3nix ... is there a techy explanation for your answer?

[mibn2cweus]

Gram for gram broken ice (smaller bits) has more surface area so cools to a lower temperature and melts faster.

Don't know about the fizz but rinsed ice is smoother and so retains more carbonation when dispensing.

[jake-the-peg]

That's a really good question about carbonated water and ice!

I'd expect it to disolve faster because the bubbles would create a faster flow of the fluid around the ice transporting the heat quicker.

But it could be that the bubbles would make the water flow more chaotic transporting the heat less effecively.

It could be a mixture of these and other effects depending of the size of ice cube and amount of water and water temperature etc. etc.

These are the sort of simple questions that often turn out to have very complex answers when you start looking at them

[fo3nix]

I was thinking along the same lines as jake. But I arrived at my answer thinking that the carbon dioxide will transfer heat less effectively than the liquid, so the heat transfer will be slightly affected. Thus the ice cubes should melt slower.

But of course as jake said, this is only one possibility; several actions could counter this and make the opposite occur.

my suggestion would be to buy some carbonated water and some plain water, and chill then both in the fridge for a few hours so that they're at roughly equal temperatues. get some ice cubes of the same approximate size, and time how long each one takes to melt. repeat a few times.

[naz_nomad]

Thanks for some great, well informed answers ... funny how the simplest things can get your mind cooking ...