Comments on: Perfect ice for perfect drinks

By: falk

falk — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:55:34 +0000

If I’m not mistaken, the ability of ice to cool a drink is exactly proportional to the rate that the ice is melting. Wait — if the ice is significantly below freezing, the ice will just warm up as it cools the drink, until it reaches the melting point.

Either way, the cooling effect of the ice is a function of how fast it’s absorbing heat from the drink (warming up or melting). A sphere would probably transfer heat the slowest because of its high volume to surface area ratio. This means that a sphere would last longer but cool the least of any other shape.

That said, I’m a beginner metalworker. How would you cut those shapes into a piece of brass?

By: denyingphoenix

denyingphoenix — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:04:45 +0000

5 Things I Love for Friday #114…

Fifa Street Style 3 commercial [video] - The cynic in me wants to say this isn’t real. But if it is, man is that cool. It’s like parkour meets soccer. These guys would totally rule at a game of One-Touch,……

By: curious

curious — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:40:27 +0000

Buck - their website shows someone holding one with baseball stitching on it and some other molds including a beer mug made from ice. I guess these are just more examples of the kinds you can buy, i.e. the one depicted above produces soccer ball shaped ice.

By: Buck

Buck — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:29:33 +0000

Odd since the device depicted above does not appear to make spheres at all, there are two different molds shown and neither of them is a sphere with no edges.

Since this device is supposed to create a sphere, and the lack of edges that would melt sooner is the sole sellling point, why are not seeing the spherical mold?

By: Chaos Motor

Chaos Motor — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:50:34 +0000

“To reduce surface area of ice cube use smaller ice cube.”

That’s a stupid answer. Using a smaller ice cube will result in less chilling of your drink, necessitating more ice cubes, which increases the overall surface area.

The reason the sphere is preferred isn’t because it has a lower surface area but because it has a lower surface area /and the same volume/, so you get the same amount of chill with the least amount of melt.