Submitted by oakgrove t3_zwhlki in mildlyinteresting
Comments
oakgrove OP t1_j1vj4cu wrote
We set out the buckets to be legs of an ice "air hockey" table. The table top was a long flat storage container. The food coloring was just for fun.
We also put out water balloons and they worked surprisingly well. I thought they might not survive the freeze.
Another experiment was filling a large heavy duty trash bag in a large storage container. This froze several inches thick on the outside surfaces but stayed liquid inside, so when we dumped it out the water stayed inside like an ice sink. https://i.imgur.com/fwsTvNh.png
shmip t1_j1z33ej wrote
Did you make the ice hockey table? That sounds like fun, and something I could do pretty easily in northern Michigan.
oakgrove OP t1_j1zkrfn wrote
We did, yeah. The whole setup was my son's idea. It was on the verge of falling off the buckets and breaking toes at any minute, but it sort of worked. We had made pucks too. I forgot to take a pic before we destroyed everything which was the best part.
KorgX3 t1_j1wqqpc wrote
The food coloring probably contained propylene glycol which is a food-safe form of antifreeze. The stuff that kills dogs is ethylene glycol and a lot of paranoid doomsayers really want to conflate the two. We were using propylene glycol mixtures for grocery refrigeration for a while, but in turns out that pumping syrup around the perimeter of a large building isn't a very cost-effective substitute for DX refrigeration.
scoopfing t1_j1w46rj wrote
I take it you don't usually get freezing temps?
oakgrove OP t1_j1wtw68 wrote
Yeah, Atlanta. This was to make up for the lack of snow chances.
Siryl7001 t1_j1xxfns wrote
So you didn't get these off the top of a police car?
drpinkcream t1_j1uxkkp wrote
I'm curious what the original experiment was and whether or not it was cooler than what you actually got.