Why are we always so watery when it comes to ice? It would seem just as well to cool a large, flavorless stone in the freezer (or, even better, in something far colder than this environment), and place it in the drink to be cooled. It should be large to prevent swallowing, and it should be a mineral that will not dissolve in the drink.
This can be done using current technology.-- Vance, Feb 07 2001 "Blue Ice" http://www.amazon.c...D5A/rvadvicofthewwwEutectic salts have more heat capacity than ice (or rocks). Rmutt once saw them in ice-cube format but can't find it now, natch. [rmutt, Feb 07 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] US Patent 6,935,134 http://www.google.c...ts?vid=USPAT6935134Cites this article. [jutta, Mar 20 2007] Midge's dick http://images.googl...26rls%3Den%26sa%3DGSee image 16. 1 Midge's dick = 3.24077649 × 10^-21 Parsecs [MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 20 2007] The real, or Scots furlong. http://www.unc.edu/...tt/units/dictF.htmlSee entry under "Fall"; ours is bigger than theirs. [MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 21 2007] Actually, it has a lot to do with thermodynamics. Your freezer will keep the stone at, say, -5C. Your drink from the fridge is at 3C. So the rock will only provide 8C times its specific heat capacity, which won't provide much cooling.
Ice, however, goes through a lovely solid-liquid transition when rising above 0C. This transition requires quite a large heat increase. Since it gets this heat from the drink, that's what keeps your drink nice and cold.
I think the heat required to melt ice at 0C would be something like 10 times that needed to raise the ice from -5C to 3C. Thus, you need ice.
You can try this yourself. Put a rock in the freezer and see if you can hold it in your hand till it gets up to body temperature. It's not that bad
Now try this with an ice cube. Even just getting all the H2O to a liquid at 0C will make your hand pretty cold, much more so than the rock.-- Wes, Feb 07 2001 It's also useful that the warmer H20 becomes liquid, thus allowing the cold core to keep a high rate of 'cold transfer' into the beverage. With a non-melting solid, the outer layers would tend to act as an insulator.
Besides, it is my firm belief that refrigerators in this country are strong enough to sufficiently cool my beverage. That's why I always specify "no ice." 9)-- beland, Feb 07 2001 I just heard on the radio that drinking cold water makes you more stupid, temporarily. Energy is diverted from your brain to your digestive track in order to heat up that water.-- blahginger, Feb 07 2001 The points about ice vs. rock are quite good. The idea is to prevent the drink from being diluted. I agree that ice is a better coolant if you don't mind the drink being diluted gradually.
Note that I suggest that the stone be made cooler than freezer temperature. Thus it could have more cooling power than ice, though for perhaps a shorter duration.
If cooled too much, the stone would cause the liquid around it too freeze. That is why the stone would be quite useful for alcoholic drinks, since the alchol will freeze only at a temperature colder than ice can provide.-- Vance, Feb 07 2001 frozen grapes work great for me. And then you have a fruity treat at the bottom of your glass when you're done.
Or else you can pre-freeze cubes of whatever beverage (assuming non-carbonated) you plan on drinking, so melting won't dilute.-- rebekkahshiri, Apr 09 2001 [admin: fixed zippyanna's to point to similar resources. rmutt will find his own replacement; I don't have enough to go on here.]-- jutta, Apr 09 2001 We have small plastic 'ice-cubes' filled with some kind of liquid. So, you freeze these in the freezer and put them in your drink. You then get the cooling effect (or heat-absorbing effect, I suppose) of the solid-liquid phase transition without having your drink diluted.Note: If you keep the Gin and Tonic water in the fridge anyway your G&T won't need so much cooling.-- hippo, Apr 09 2001 Are there any dentists out there that would like to comment on putting stones in drinks? When you got to the bottom of the drink, and the glass reached a certain angle, the stones would slide from the bottom of the glass......-- suninkid, Apr 09 2001 How about you just borrow some old technology from A&W Root Beer? Don't add cooling stuff to your beverage - chill the glass itself to a subzero temperature! Works best with big, thick glass mugs like (not coincidentally)A&W rootbeer mugs. Some ice ends up freezing on the bottom of the cup, concentrating your drink. Heaven! :)
In the name of science, I have done some experiments at home with this; it is advisable to not only chill the glass, but the drink itself beforehand for the desired effect to be achieved.-- Corona688, Dec 18 2002 The rock vs ice problem could be solved by supercooling the rock with liquid nitrogen. In fact, you could do this with ice also - you could probably finish your drink before it melted. Unlike the rock, the supercooled ice would probably not break your teeth. However, it might stick to your tongue.-- bungston, Dec 18 2002 </ Overheard At the Bar /> And I'll have mine on the Rocks please ...-- riskyrisk, Nov 12 2003 Bungston, Bungston, Bungston. No, no, no. A small amount of thought and a minor calculation would save you from embarrassing yourself in this way.
The latent heat of fusion of ice is 334kJ/kg, whereas the specific heat of granite is 0.79kJ/kg/°C.
Therefore, cooling a rock with liquid nitrogen (at about 70K, or -200°C) will give you only about 160kJ/kg of cooling capacity, or about half that of the equivalent mass of ice. Even cooling the rock to within a midge's dick of absolute zero will only give you about 210kJ/kg.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 20 2007 How much is that in furlongs?(hint one parsec = 1.533879 X 10^14 furlongs)-- methinksnot, Mar 21 2007 4.97 × 10^-7 furlongs. Assuming you mean a standard English furlong.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 21 2007 As opposed to the metric furlong?-- methinksnot, Mar 21 2007 No, as opposed to the real, or Scots furlong.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 21 2007 Is it long-er (look Ma! A pun.)-- methinksnot, Mar 21 2007 Where?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 21 2007 In Scotland?
I just searched for furlong (to research pun material) and found the most fantastic unit of speed: Furlongs per fortnight!-- methinksnot, Mar 21 2007 Trivial derivative unit. One furlong per fortnight is 0.7776 pyads/ke.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 21 2007 you can do this with regular water that is separated from the drink via a physical barrier-- lilsis, Mar 22 2007 random, halfbakery