this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Ice floating and cooling the upper part of a drink should start a natural convection type cycle which cools the whole drink. If the ice sank, you'd have a very warm surface layer. Never thought about this with focus before πŸ˜…

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It’s even more important than your drink! The fact that I’ve floats is what allows ice to act as an insulator on top of frozen lakes and oceans. If it sank, liquid water would take its place and freeze. After a while the whole body of water would be frozen.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Never thought of this either! Makes me curious of the efficiency vs say a whiskey stone or equivalent

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Stones are less effective overall because they don't melt. A very substantial part of the temperature change you get from putting ice in something is actually from thermal energy in the liquid going towards breaking the bonds between molecules that comprise solid ice in order to make it water. Without that sink for heat, you'll still cool your drink by allowing the colder solid to absorb heat from the liquid, but the temperature change will not be nearly as much.