Ice Definition and 980 Threads

Ice is water frozen into a solid state. Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaque bluish-white color.
In the Solar System, ice is abundant and occurs naturally from as close to the Sun as Mercury to as far away as the Oort cloud objects. Beyond the Solar System, it occurs as interstellar ice. It is abundant on Earth's surface – particularly in the polar regions and above the snow line – and, as a common form of precipitation and deposition, plays a key role in Earth's water cycle and climate. It falls as snowflakes and hail or occurs as frost, icicles or ice spikes and aggregates from snow as glaciers and ice sheets.
Ice exhibits at least eighteen phases (packing geometries), depending on temperature and pressure. When water is cooled rapidly (quenching), up to three types of amorphous ice can form depending on its history of pressure and temperature. When cooled slowly, correlated proton tunneling occurs below −253.15 °C (20 K, −423.67 °F) giving rise to macroscopic quantum phenomena. Virtually all ice on Earth's surface and in its atmosphere is of a hexagonal crystalline structure denoted as ice Ih (spoken as "ice one h") with minute traces of cubic ice, denoted as ice Ic and, more recently found, Ice VII inclusions in diamonds. The most common phase transition to ice Ih occurs when liquid water is cooled below 0 °C (273.15 K, 32 °F) at standard atmospheric pressure. It may also be deposited directly by water vapor, as happens in the formation of frost. The transition from ice to water is melting and from ice directly to water vapor is sublimation.
Ice is used in a variety of ways, including for cooling, for winter sports, and ice sculpting.

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  1. Greg Bernhardt

    Sprinkle soil on the ice wall around driveway?

    I have 5 feet of compacted snow/ice walls hugging my driveway. A crazy thought went through my mind that I have extra bags of soil in my garage that are nearly black. I thought maybe I could melt the ice walls down and not hurt my lawn or driveway if I sprinkled that soil on the walls when it's...
  2. Ranger Mike

    Question about ice cube tray freezing first in the front

    why is it, the ice cube tray freezes first, at the front of the tray closest to the door. This should be the warmest place of the refrigerator. The back does not have enough time to send the colder air out to atmosphere. I think i know the answer but lets us explore this..
  3. H

    Amazing 19th Century Ice Ejection During Northwest Passage Sail

    In the 19th century the British Navy tried to sail ships through the Northwest Passage. The main obstacle was that the wind would drive pack ice against the northern shore of Canada. No ship could withstand a large berg. The ships usually got stuck in the ice for years, leaving plenty of...
  4. TonyCross

    Kinetic-Potential energy of moving Ice

    Hi, Am i correct in thinking that if we take a block of ice, moving at a constant velocity, it's then exposed to a heat source which melts the ice and turns it into water vapour, that we have simply removed any Kinetic energy, by Sublimation or converting it into heat. My question is does the...
  5. R

    Problem about a block of ice melting (specific latent heat)

    Energy lost by water = Energy gained by ice Energy lost by water = 0.16 x 4200 x (100-t) Energy gained by ice = 0.205 x L + 0.205 x (t) (where t is the temperature at thermal equilibrium). However, there does not appear to be enough info to continue. The solution, however, considered t to be...
  6. M

    The Entropy Change of Melting Ice: Why is the Equation Written as ΔS = Q/T?

    For this, Why dose they write the change in entropy equation as ##\Delta S = \frac{Q}{T}##? Would it not better to write it as ##\Delta S = \frac{\Delta Q}{T}##, since it clear that we are only concerned about the transfer of heat in our system while it remains at constant temperature as all...
  7. A

    I How Long Does Water Ice Take to Sublimate in Space?

    How long does it take water ice H20 in space in our solar system to sublimate, say a basic ice cube? It starts as a solid cube at the temperature of whatever space is above Earth and then completely turns to vapor. Just looking for ballpark situation here. Does anyone know of a table or place...
  8. A

    Plate sliding on ice with friction (Physics competition question)

    I reason the frictional force on the plate from the ice is doing work first 3 meters (while the motorbike is moving on top) and then an "x" distance after the motorbike has left it. Does anybody have an idea of how one might solve this problem?
  9. DarkEnergy890

    The Mystery of Heat Loss: Examining Ice Melting Without Heat Loss

    During the procedure, 30% of heat is lost. So that means that 70% of water+container is contributing to melting the ice, right? And the other 30% contributing melting the ice is down to, well, the "heat being lost to the surroundings" (not sure what this really means). We compute the sum and...
  10. Astronuc

    Hydrogen-fueled Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/toyota-s-upcoming-hydrogen-powered-5-0-v-8-engine-has-the-potential-to-bury-evs/ar-AA15Q9mq See also an old thread - https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/hydrogen-combustion-engines.70653/ But what material. I know that Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metals...
  11. F

    I Can you detect the Earth's Rotation Using a Hockey Puck on Ice?

    If you put a hockey puck on a flat Ice rink, will it move due to the Earths rotation? For example, if I make a mark and measure the distance moved with a caliper, would I notice a change?
  12. D

    I Is it cooler hanging ice packs from a fishnet bag or in a thermal lunch-bag?

    Summary: I think I found the solution at the end of the post, posting in case someone has a better idea. I plan on going shopping somewhere a bit distant because my local supermarkets dropped the majority of store brands. I suspect the whole trip will take 90-120 mins. I have a deep freezer...
  13. A

    Aftermath of a collision with an ice giant

    Hi again. Is it plausible that an ice giant like Neptune could be shattered by a collision such that it keeps a tight debris field for a few hundred thousand years before recoalescing as a planet? In my story the characters hide in a debris field and refine the ices for fuel. Also, if the...
  14. Pouyan

    Interpreting Statistical Questions: Ice Hockey Player Diff.

    The solution in my book: 5/4 = 1.25. That is 25 % more. What I came up with: I thought that now we have totally 9 players. So A: 4/9 and B: 5/9. The difference is 1/9 which is about 11%! A friend told me : The difference between B & A is 5-4=1 The changing rate is (5-4)/5 = 0.2 ! So B has 20...
  15. P

    How much ice to cool down this water?

    Hello! I'm having some problems solving a task.. "Ice with temperature -12°C is used to cool down water from 98°C. to 55°C. . Specific heat capacity for ice = 2097J/kgK, Secific heat capacity water: 4180 j/kgK. Heat of fusion for water is 334,4kJ7K. The mass of the water is 20kg." ∆T water =...
  16. A

    I What Does Radiation Do to Space Ice?

    A little more clear: I'm looking for a video or animation where I can visualize/see radiation on space ice (Europa or the Galilean moons). I know that radiation is invisible, but what does the ice actually look like or how does it change visually when its bombarded with gamma rays? Because its...
  17. W

    Heat Engine Efficiency: How Ice Water Affects Performance

    Consider mixing ice water with the hot water and vice versa so that the two reservoirs are closer to the same temperature. What will happen to the mechanical/thermodynamic efficiency and ideal Carnot efficiency of a heat engine?
  18. bluesteels

    Confusion about whether to use the specific heat of water or ice

    My thought process of how i do the ice melting part: (note I just ignore the copper/lead part cause I already know how to do that part) Q_ice + Q_melt + Q_liquid so, it 0.018(2100)T+0.16(4190)T+0.018(334*10^3) but on chegg they didn't use 2100 but they just use 4190 instead and I am confused...
  19. Nick Tucker

    Calculating Force and Work for a Penguin Climbing up an Ice Slope

    Got a question from my science exam that I'm not sure how to figure it out. All the context I was given is attached. My attempt: Mass=26kg 26a = Force Work = 26a x 2 Work = 52aNot sure how to figure it out, as 52a is the wrong answer.
  20. S

    Would an ICE powered Hall thrusters be efficient?

    Hall thrusters is generally considered to have a much higher specific impulse and higher max speed than chemical rockets for use in space. But that does not calculate in the power source use of fuel right? Because it is generally assumed that you will use solar panels or a nuclear reactor to...
  21. Astronuc

    15,000-Year-Old Viruses Discovered in Tibetan Glacier Ice -

    Previously Unknown to Humans - sure, because it's 2021, and pandemic in 2020-2021 wasn't enough. https://scitechdaily.com/15000-year-old-viruses-discovered-in-tibetan-glacier-ice-previously-unknown-to-humans/ I've hear similar concern about other regions and the permafrost, which is melting in...
  22. M

    MHB Finding the Period of a Sinusoidal Model for Ice Cream Sales

    The owner of an ice cream shop kept records of the average number of sales per month for 2019. Create a sinusoidal equation to model this information of number of sales per month.I found the maximum, minimum for this, but how can I find the period of from this table. As I already know formula to...
  23. G

    B Pressure under the ice of Europa?

    What could be the water pressure under the ice of Europe moon? Could it be toleratable for not super expensive machines, structures?
  24. G

    Gathering Ice on Mars for Paraterraforming

    Paraterraforming requires lots of water and CO2, much of them freezen in the polar caps. What could be the plausible ways to collect them? In low gravity and thin air, could ship sized land vehicles or maybe entire cities move? Or should they build lots of villages powered by a central nuclear...
  25. I

    Polar Ice Caps and the Earth's Speed of Rotation

    Is it correct to say that the melting of the polar caps due to climate change may increase Earth's speed of rotation?
  26. V

    Automotive The reason for the low efficiency of the ICE - zero shoulder crankshaft

    I don't know English well, translated using google translate. The working mixture ignites at TDC, and at this point the crankshaft looks up (0 degrees). As the piston descends, the force that the piston needs to travel a certain distance (for example, 1 mm) decreases, up to the moment when the...
  27. Limebat

    Newbie Physics Student Asks: Does Vapor to Ice Change Acceleration/Velocity?

    *My bad if this question is a tad ree ree. I've just completed my first year of college and am still inexperienced. I just study physics for fun.* My intuition says the momentum of the water vapor is still conserved during the phase shift, as this question most probably relates to the...
  28. CyanPowder

    Calculate the Mass of Ice cubes needed to cool a soft drink

    Summary:: TLDR : Drink cooled from 17 C to 7 C with either ice cubes (method 1) or soapstone stones (method 2). Calculate the mass of each item that would be needed to cool the same drink. Given the information provided. In order to cool a drink (“cola” for example) from a storage-room...
  29. N

    Can an Antarctic ice sheet collapse cause a worldwide tsunami?

    Hi, I am not a Physical Student/Physical Scientist. Can an Antarctic ice sheet collapse cause a worldwide tsunami? A big one or bigger like this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/26/iceberg-size-of-greater-london-breaks-off-antarctica Can you please explain why this can cause a...
  30. kippert

    What is it about ice that makes it so reflective?

    Hi, So I've just been learning about albedo as part of my course and the question that strikes me is: What is it about the structure of ice, particularly at the surface, that causes so much more light to reflect than with water? The differences I can see are: * Ice is less dense than water and...
  31. M

    Specific latent heat of fusion of ice question

    a) Ew = EL + Ei mwc(T2-T1) = miL + mic(T2-0) 160 x 4.2 x (30 - 20) = 20L + (20 x 4.2 x 20) L = (6720 - 1680)/20 = 252 J/g b) accounting for 3 gram of melted ice 160 x 4.2 x (30 - 20) = (20 - 3) + (20 x 4.2 x 20)...
  32. J

    Calorimetry - finding the final temperature of a system of ice and water

    So all of the ice melts and I am guessing it then warms some so Q=mL+mc(change in T) for the water that cools down Q=mc(change in T) Q_cold = -Q_hot so -mc(Tf - Ti) = mL+mc(Tf - Ti) My issue is that I have 2 unknowns. I don't know the specific heat capacity of water and I don't know the...
  33. L

    Elastic Collision and Momentum of Ice Skaters

    1. Hello, so the difficulty I am having with this problem is that is seems relatively straightforward. I have tried to solving it by assuming that this is a collision in which momentum is conserved. Therefore, I found the total momentum before the collision and used this to resolve it must be...
  34. ayans2495

    Finding the final temperature of a mixture of ice and steam

  35. gabriel barata

    I Can Precession Explain the Stability of High-Speed Ice Skaters?

    does it take wheels for precession to happen? can precession be applied to ice skates, for example?
  36. A

    Reaction Torque from an Ice Auger

    Trying to determine the reaction torque a person would have to supply to keep the auger head from spinning when the ice auger is drilling a hole So I am an ice fisherman and I got thinking, when you drill a hole with an ice auger, the head always wants to turn opposite of the auger bit. You have...
  37. lola1227

    Ice pond with no friction -- how to get across?

    Would we use the mass of the bucket and pucks to get a higher acceleration? I don't understand the use of the pucks in this question? How would the three laws relate to this?
  38. danielhaish

    Does ice melt faster in water because helps to change the phase

    so according to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleation nucleation start faster when there is a round matter that already in the phase that the other matter is going to ,so in case of ice melting in water because it would have more Nucleation points, edit: i mafe alittle experience and it...
  39. T

    Truth and facts about eating candy, ice cream as well as junk food

    Hi again. I was wondering, does eating candy, Ice cream and junk food shorten ones life span? If yes then how much does it need to be to be able to do that to the human body? What effects does it have on the human body? can it give you diabetes and other body conditions like that? How much of...
  40. S

    Can a 4 stroke ICE be oil-less?

    I have seen descriptions of fully ceramic engines that does not need oil or watercooling. But that is expensive and difficult to machine. So can you apply a coating (TiN or some other PVD coatings? Or maybe hard chrome coating?) on the cylinder walls and the piston rings made from traditional...
  41. Z

    Cylinder in a heat bath @ 0C contains water and ice & is compressed

    You can use the change in volume to find how much ice turned into water, and then find the energy required to melt that ice - that I have no problems with. But then work done by piston = change in internal energy of ice/water combination (which we found) + heat released to the bath. And we...
  42. Tom Booth

    Should ice take longer to melt when used to run a heat engine?

    If a heat engine converts heat into "work", will ice used to run a Stirling heat engine last longer than ice allowed to melt by itself? To try and answer this, I obtained a Stirling engine and ran this experiment: With the engine running: And not running: Without the engine running the...
  43. I

    Different Temperatures of Ice versus the Refractive Index

    I want to make an experiment about the refractive index of ice but this time I want to use different temperatures. (for example with -15 C ice and with -1 C ice) When I tried to search on the internet I couldn't find any specific formula or any article because I guess I couldn't explain what I...
  44. nuky999

    Solving the Melting Ice Problem

    I don't know how to make an equation from this task. I tried doing this: Q1=Q2 m1Cv(t2-t1)=m2Qi m1 - mass of the ice m2 = mass of the water that's left after melting t1 - temperature 0C t2 - temperature 100C Qi = 2.25 x 10^6 J/kg This is my first post here I hope I didnt break any rules. Cheers !
  45. I

    Question about thermal physics -- Ice cubes melting in water

    First, I calculated the heat required for the ice to melt: Q=mLf Q=0.150×330 Q=49.5 J Then, I calculated the final temperature of the water by forming the following equation: Q=mcΔT −49.5=(0.15+0.35)×4200×(Tf −80) Tf=80.0 degrees Celcius But the answer says 32 degrees Celsius.
  46. il postino

    Chemistry Equilibrium temperature of a water and ice system

    Equal masses of ice at –10ºC and water at 80ºC are placed in an insulated container and allowed to reach thermal equilibrium. Calculate the equilibrium temperature Data: Water(ice): 37,65 J/mol.K Agua (l): 75,29 J/mol.K ## Lf = 6011 J/mol ## I solved it this way: ## -Q_{l} = Q_{ice} ## ##...
  47. Yeahaight

    Amount of heat = 80 kJ -- how much ice can you melt?

    I've been messing with the Q = cm(t2-t1)=cmΔt formula If I change it to m=Q/(c*Δt) everything is fine until I reach the c part, because there has been given the c of ice and the c of water too, do I just subtract c ice from c water?
  48. NTL2009

    Automotive Design Factors for ICE Peak HP versus RPM?

    I'm thinking about the large (for the 1960's) farm tractors I drove, that produced lots of low end torque, and max RPM was ~ 1800 ~2200 (from memory). Are there certain design factors to maximize horsepower at these low RPMs, versus a common auto engine that might peak around 5,000-6,000 RPM...
  49. B

    Why do I observe ice formation on the exterior of this pipeline?

    Hi all, I would like to ask why is there ice formation on the exterior of the pipes between compressor to reactor when there is no flow passing through or what kind of phenomenon is this? My colleagues have suggested PV=nRT and adiabatic process as the possible reasons but I still feel that...
  50. Y

    Entropy change when melting ice then refreezing the water

    ##dmL_f= Q \; \; ##,##∆T=\frac{T(v_l-v_s)∆P}{L} \; \;##,##\frac{dmL_f}{T_0}= dS_2 \; \;##,##\frac{dmL_f}{T_1}= dS_1 ##
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