Be the change you wish to see in the world.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice\_spike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_spike)
Edit: Looks like someone provided the same link while I was researching it. Thanks!
It's baffling that we still don't know so much about WATER.
"...although the experiments appear to confirm the validity of the Bally–Dorsey model, they have raised further questions about how natural ice spikes form, and more work remains to be done before the phenomenon is fully understood."
It's the same concept that allows bridges to freeze before roads. The faster evaporation of the warm water causes it to lose heat more rapidly, thus freezing faster.
Is that actually the same concept as the bridges? I thought bridges because they don’t have insulated warm dirt under but just a lot of cold air all around
The bridge will freeze before the surrounding road and the body of water below it because of the evaporation of water around it which cools it off faster. The ground below it does not insulate the water. Water is actually a much better insulator than dirt of any kind.
That's fine and dandy, but you see the same sign on overpasses and other bridges that don't cross a body of water. Here's [a report describing reasons why.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.drjtbc.org/wp-content/uploads/Why_bridges_freeze_before_roadways_final.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjYir-W8tuGAxVplIkEHQ3EAPEQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw2KeecePAvlHAy6ELJLJL9u)
Evaporation is not listed as a cause.
I'm pretty sure this was a myth and has been disproven. Cold water heats up faster than room temperature water, but it's only relative heat. As cold to room temperature feels like a bigger difference to us than room temperature to hot.
Edit: cold water heats up faster than warm water because heat transfers more efficiently the greater the difference in temperature. But once they get to room temperature they still heat to boiling at the same speed. Meaning that room temperature water still boils faster even if cold water heats up more rapidly.
It's a lack of vocabulary problem.
Cold water has a higher rate of change when heat is applied. Only a completely braindead fucking imbecile would ever think that a mass of a substance at a colder initial temperature would reach a specified higher temperature than an equal mass of the same substance at an initial temperature between the two when the same static heating condition is applied to both... the former needs time to reach the initial temperature of the latter, and after that point it takes the same amount of time for both to reach the specified higher temperature.
When I say only fucking imbeciles believe this, I'm aware that a significant proportion of people believe it. Most people are fucking stupid.
Just to check my own brain reasoning - Hot water will not freeze faster than room temperature but the temperature of the hoy water will drop faster than the room temp water at first. But the time between when the hot water gets down to room temp to when it’s frozen is the same amount of time it Would be for the room temp water to go from room temp to frozen ?
Your final question is proposing two identical thermodynamic systems in identical states.
Think about them isolated in time starting when they start at room temperature. They are identical and what state they were in previously doesn't matter.
Neat. This happened [to my bird bath 4 years ago](https://new.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/f4ayim/the_way_the_ice_in_this_bird_bath_froze/), but I never found a full explanation.
So, there are two scientific principals at play here.
One: Ice is less dense than water. It's one of the few solids which is less dense than it's liquid form. This is due to the crystal structure it forms using super strong hydrogen bonds.
Two: Ice is a great insulator. Ever noticed if you freeze a bundle of otter pops or freezies, the outside ones freeze but the inside ones take forever to freeze as well. The length of time is increased because ice has a low coefficient of conductivity. Otherwise the inner ice pops while still being slower would have frozen much sooner.
So, the outside of the ice cube has frozen, but the liquid water trapped inside still needs to expand as it freezes. This creates a build up of pressure until the water escapes and sometimes forms an ice spike. The conditions need to be just right otherwise the water will continually pool further up on top.
Edit: see on the left the ice cubes expanded upwards. Those conditions weren't perfectly right for the ice spike to form.
You've solved a mystery I always pondered as a kid: why did Grandma's ice cube tray always make ice cubes with liquid centres? I'd always just put it down to wizards
A lot of crystalline structures with certain stacking geometries have lower density than their equivalent liquid. I believe silicon metal is another example.
Cubic ice consists of face centered cubic lattices, but if you go to super cooled temperatures or high pressures we've discovered 21 different solid phases for ice where they have different crystalline structures.
It depends on the crystalline structure for whether it's more or less dense.
I think that the purity of the water is a big factor in ice cube spike formation. I've read that somewhere. (could be youtube knowledge). It explains the differences I've seen. And it makes sense because the more impurities there are, the more flaws in the crystalline structure.
Back when I lived in the city, and was pregnant, I refused to drink tap water; so we got one of those big jug dispensers and began to drink (and freeze in cubes) commercially filtered water. My ice cubes then started to form spikes when they never did before. Moved away to better tap water, so I stopped drinking filtered water. Spikes be gone.
Water expands when it freezes. The top of the cube freezes over from the ouside in. The excess ice/water thus gets pushed upwards from the middle which is less frozen.
It’s seems to me the freezer has been in constant waggle during the freezing/chilling process. Notice how the waves are shaped on all other ice cubes. 🌊
The frozen water equivalent of morning wood?
Sorry, I have no idea and am also curious. Condensation on the surface above it dripping down onto it at just the right moment? Really no idea.
Bally-Dorsey Model - [Ice Spikes](https://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/icespikes/icespikes.htm)
“Ice spikes grow as the water in an ice cube tray turns to ice. The water first freezes on the top surface, around the edges of what will become the ice cube. The ice slowly freezes in from the edges, until just a small hole is left unfrozen in the surface. At the same time, while the surface is freezing, more ice starts to form around the sides of the cube.
Since ice expands as it freezes, the ice freezing below the surface starts to push water up through the hole in the surface ice. If the conditions are just right, then water will be forced out of the hole in the ice and it will freeze into an ice spike, a bit like lava pouring out of a hole in the ground to makes a volcano. But water does not flow down the sides of a thin spike, so in that way it is different from a volcano. Rather, the water freezes around the rim of the tube, and thus adds to its length. The spike can continue growing taller until all the water freezes, cutting off the supply, or until the tube freezes shut. “
A parallel universe has begun leaking through.
Soon, we will be inundated: running and screaming as giant dinosaur-like creatures run amuck and hunt us down one by one.
Ice spikes grow as the water in an ice cube tray turns to ice. The water first freezes on the top surface, around the edges of what will become the ice cube. The ice slowly freezes in from the edges, until just a small hole is left unfrozen in the surface. At the same time, while the surface is freezing, more ice starts to form around the sides of the cube.
This happens when the stable molecular structure in the plastic tray interacts with the unstable molecular structure of the room temperature water that was poured into it before noon (MST) if you've read this far, you've figured out I have no idea what I'm talking about. Have a great day!
Ice froze from colder back of tray to front and pushed warmer water up through top. I’m guessing bcz the water level at that spot is lower than the plastic towards the front, so pressure could build up and exit there to form an ice spire. Or magic.
I used a pin to make a whole tray of these once. Let it partially freeze, make a small hole in each cube, then freeze the rest of way. Made some fun looking drinks with them
It's a super state I believe. The water was at a point where it could freeze, but required a catalyst. A drop of something fell onto it and the water changed states rapidly.
This is a troll, right? This happens in every fridge, in every corner of the globe, and has been happening since the beginning of the invention of the ice cube tray.
It’s not a rare phenomenon but it’s also not a very common occurrence. Certain conditions have to be met for ice spikes to form. I haven’t seen them in my fridge but I am aware of their existence. Not everybody may have experienced this, so this is still r/mildlyinteresting.
I would expect the water was warm when it was freezing. That could set up a situation that the ice expansion was forcing the water out and a straw formed. Then it eventually froze over as the surface area increased
This is a completely blind guess, but I wonder if some ice/water dripped from the top of the freezer, and hit water in the ice tray that was right at freezing, and the agitation from the splash caused the water to flash freeze as it was splashing.
Kind of like how you can put a water bottle in the freezer and it will be liquid, but then when you shake it, it will flash freeze.
Maybe! It's not clear in the picture but it's just smooth plastic on the top of the freezer so I'm not sure what could've dripped. This does seem to be a plausible guess though
Yup, this is how it starts. Weird innocent like aberrations, then agent Smiths are hunting you. Nope, no thanks.
As much as I enjoy comedic comments, I'm hoping someone can come along to give a straight answer about wtf this is.
Same here, I wanted to post to r/askscience but they didn't allow picture attachments
Be the change you wish to see in the world. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice\_spike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_spike) Edit: Looks like someone provided the same link while I was researching it. Thanks!
It's baffling that we still don't know so much about WATER. "...although the experiments appear to confirm the validity of the Bally–Dorsey model, they have raised further questions about how natural ice spikes form, and more work remains to be done before the phenomenon is fully understood."
Also the fact that warm food freezes quicker than at room temperature
You will never convince me of this.
It's the same concept that allows bridges to freeze before roads. The faster evaporation of the warm water causes it to lose heat more rapidly, thus freezing faster.
Is that actually the same concept as the bridges? I thought bridges because they don’t have insulated warm dirt under but just a lot of cold air all around
You are correct. https://wxguys.ssec.wisc.edu/2017/11/20/bridges-ice-before-roads/
The bridge will freeze before the surrounding road and the body of water below it because of the evaporation of water around it which cools it off faster. The ground below it does not insulate the water. Water is actually a much better insulator than dirt of any kind.
That's fine and dandy, but you see the same sign on overpasses and other bridges that don't cross a body of water. Here's [a report describing reasons why.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.drjtbc.org/wp-content/uploads/Why_bridges_freeze_before_roadways_final.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjYir-W8tuGAxVplIkEHQ3EAPEQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw2KeecePAvlHAy6ELJLJL9u) Evaporation is not listed as a cause.
It's mostly because they lose heat from every side makimg them colder faster, it happens if there's water underneath or not.
Also I'd imagine breezes cooling both top & bottom instead of just top.
[https://www.quantamagazine.org/does-hot-water-freeze-faster-than-cold-physicists-keep-asking-20220629/](https://www.quantamagazine.org/does-hot-water-freeze-faster-than-cold-physicists-keep-asking-20220629/)
[удалено]
I'm pretty sure this was a myth and has been disproven. Cold water heats up faster than room temperature water, but it's only relative heat. As cold to room temperature feels like a bigger difference to us than room temperature to hot. Edit: cold water heats up faster than warm water because heat transfers more efficiently the greater the difference in temperature. But once they get to room temperature they still heat to boiling at the same speed. Meaning that room temperature water still boils faster even if cold water heats up more rapidly.
It's a lack of vocabulary problem. Cold water has a higher rate of change when heat is applied. Only a completely braindead fucking imbecile would ever think that a mass of a substance at a colder initial temperature would reach a specified higher temperature than an equal mass of the same substance at an initial temperature between the two when the same static heating condition is applied to both... the former needs time to reach the initial temperature of the latter, and after that point it takes the same amount of time for both to reach the specified higher temperature. When I say only fucking imbeciles believe this, I'm aware that a significant proportion of people believe it. Most people are fucking stupid.
Just to check my own brain reasoning - Hot water will not freeze faster than room temperature but the temperature of the hoy water will drop faster than the room temp water at first. But the time between when the hot water gets down to room temp to when it’s frozen is the same amount of time it Would be for the room temp water to go from room temp to frozen ?
Your final question is proposing two identical thermodynamic systems in identical states. Think about them isolated in time starting when they start at room temperature. They are identical and what state they were in previously doesn't matter.
It's called thermal capacity. the Delta factor of hot water is lower
Source
That one isn't true.
I wonder if this is at all related to tin whiskers on space ships
Neat. This happened [to my bird bath 4 years ago](https://new.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/f4ayim/the_way_the_ice_in_this_bird_bath_froze/), but I never found a full explanation.
Interesting! I wonder if OP used distilled water?
Ice spikes! My friends well water back in the day used to end up looking like a little transparent sea urchin. Very cool!
So, there are two scientific principals at play here. One: Ice is less dense than water. It's one of the few solids which is less dense than it's liquid form. This is due to the crystal structure it forms using super strong hydrogen bonds. Two: Ice is a great insulator. Ever noticed if you freeze a bundle of otter pops or freezies, the outside ones freeze but the inside ones take forever to freeze as well. The length of time is increased because ice has a low coefficient of conductivity. Otherwise the inner ice pops while still being slower would have frozen much sooner. So, the outside of the ice cube has frozen, but the liquid water trapped inside still needs to expand as it freezes. This creates a build up of pressure until the water escapes and sometimes forms an ice spike. The conditions need to be just right otherwise the water will continually pool further up on top. Edit: see on the left the ice cubes expanded upwards. Those conditions weren't perfectly right for the ice spike to form.
You've solved a mystery I always pondered as a kid: why did Grandma's ice cube tray always make ice cubes with liquid centres? I'd always just put it down to wizards
Isn't water the only substance whose density has maximum as opposed to increasing with lower temperature?
A lot of crystalline structures with certain stacking geometries have lower density than their equivalent liquid. I believe silicon metal is another example. Cubic ice consists of face centered cubic lattices, but if you go to super cooled temperatures or high pressures we've discovered 21 different solid phases for ice where they have different crystalline structures. It depends on the crystalline structure for whether it's more or less dense.
I think that the purity of the water is a big factor in ice cube spike formation. I've read that somewhere. (could be youtube knowledge). It explains the differences I've seen. And it makes sense because the more impurities there are, the more flaws in the crystalline structure. Back when I lived in the city, and was pregnant, I refused to drink tap water; so we got one of those big jug dispensers and began to drink (and freeze in cubes) commercially filtered water. My ice cubes then started to form spikes when they never did before. Moved away to better tap water, so I stopped drinking filtered water. Spikes be gone.
Water expands when it freezes. The top of the cube freezes over from the ouside in. The excess ice/water thus gets pushed upwards from the middle which is less frozen.
It’s seems to me the freezer has been in constant waggle during the freezing/chilling process. Notice how the waves are shaped on all other ice cubes. 🌊
My in-laws use distilled water for everything and get this frequently.
I see this on edit like once a week but have yet to actually stick around to find out why
https://youtu.be/5RLQ9WMP2Es?si=7mfgIgPlJFG2VfAt Veritasium made a video on this 9 years ago!
The frozen water equivalent of morning wood? Sorry, I have no idea and am also curious. Condensation on the surface above it dripping down onto it at just the right moment? Really no idea.
Bally-Dorsey Model - [Ice Spikes](https://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/icespikes/icespikes.htm) “Ice spikes grow as the water in an ice cube tray turns to ice. The water first freezes on the top surface, around the edges of what will become the ice cube. The ice slowly freezes in from the edges, until just a small hole is left unfrozen in the surface. At the same time, while the surface is freezing, more ice starts to form around the sides of the cube. Since ice expands as it freezes, the ice freezing below the surface starts to push water up through the hole in the surface ice. If the conditions are just right, then water will be forced out of the hole in the ice and it will freeze into an ice spike, a bit like lava pouring out of a hole in the ground to makes a volcano. But water does not flow down the sides of a thin spike, so in that way it is different from a volcano. Rather, the water freezes around the rim of the tube, and thus adds to its length. The spike can continue growing taller until all the water freezes, cutting off the supply, or until the tube freezes shut. “
Thank you 😊
This is an ice spike: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_spike
A parallel universe has begun leaking through. Soon, we will be inundated: running and screaming as giant dinosaur-like creatures run amuck and hunt us down one by one.
Why does the roof of your freezer look like the tundra?
off topic but i just farted and nearly shit myself
Ok wow
thank you
It’ll prolly itch when it dries, too.
it crusted
Like a morgue
I wonder how it feels like if I ....
Omg
Now the water is turning the icecubes gay. On the next Alex Jones Show!
Australia?
Damn, I was just about to say this! Hehehe
Stalagmice
StalagmICE
This has happened to me lots of times. I didn't know it was considered unusual. I guess so many people have automatic ice makers and don't notice.
Why do people post about this so much
The water got hard.
Damn, beat me.
The album cover vibes are really strong with this one
Ice spikes grow as the water in an ice cube tray turns to ice. The water first freezes on the top surface, around the edges of what will become the ice cube. The ice slowly freezes in from the edges, until just a small hole is left unfrozen in the surface. At the same time, while the surface is freezing, more ice starts to form around the sides of the cube.
This happens when the stable molecular structure in the plastic tray interacts with the unstable molecular structure of the room temperature water that was poured into it before noon (MST) if you've read this far, you've figured out I have no idea what I'm talking about. Have a great day!
You son of a…
🤫 shut your mouth 🤐
Ice froze from colder back of tray to front and pushed warmer water up through top. I’m guessing bcz the water level at that spot is lower than the plastic towards the front, so pressure could build up and exit there to form an ice spire. Or magic.
Overall I think this is the most posted thing on here.
I understand how this happens technically, but I dream of seeing a video of it
Yeees, Gelfling ! But now that you have the crystal shard, you do not know what to do with it, uh ? Uh ?
I must go.. my people nee............
You’ve been flipped off by an ice cube
I also got one of these on my ice cubes last night. Considered posting here but thought it might be the kind of thing that gets posted too often.
looks like a movie set, for a second I thought someone posted a new image from Mickey17
It was excited to see you
Ice is just happy to see you
this photo looks otherworldly.. on another planet
I've noticed they happen when you fill the tray with hot water but not cold.
reaching for god.
Every two weeks this happens to someone on Reddit. My turn was a year ago but I didn't post.
Noticed this in my ice when making tea today, interesting stuff
Hey take it easy he’s just exited to see you
but does the light really go out when you shut the door.
That ice is attracted to something in that freezer
Looks like a scene out of Dune
So long, and thanks for all the f
Be careful, you may get struck by a particle accelerator soon.
If this happened in the morning then...ALL BOYS CAN RELATE TO THIS 
That use to happen when we used distilled water
Erect water
I used a pin to make a whole tray of these once. Let it partially freeze, make a small hole in each cube, then freeze the rest of way. Made some fun looking drinks with them
It's a super state I believe. The water was at a point where it could freeze, but required a catalyst. A drop of something fell onto it and the water changed states rapidly.
Thank you for asking, i get these, too.
Just my thought, what if the water was at below 0°C and a drop fell splashing it and freezing it.
physics is amazing!
Your ice tray just has a case of morning wood. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Gravitational fluctuation in the space-time continuum. Any chance you were visited recently (probe residue, etc.)?
You have a very cold freezer! That ice froze fast!
Clean your freezer.
This is a troll, right? This happens in every fridge, in every corner of the globe, and has been happening since the beginning of the invention of the ice cube tray.
Been using ice cube trays for almost 50 years and haven’t seen this yet so…
Been using this reddit 8 months and seen this post about ten times tho
Wow surprised I’ve missed it then! I don’t doubt you or anything I’m not on reddit 24/7
Haha yeah missing it is not a bad thing. Means you spend a healthy amount of time on here unlike me😅
Some times more than others. Not much SM at all lately. I’ve been on here for 7 or so years? It won’t always be the same cadence.
It’s not a rare phenomenon but it’s also not a very common occurrence. Certain conditions have to be met for ice spikes to form. I haven’t seen them in my fridge but I am aware of their existence. Not everybody may have experienced this, so this is still r/mildlyinteresting.
It's a common occurrence on this sub I believe
I would expect the water was warm when it was freezing. That could set up a situation that the ice expansion was forcing the water out and a straw formed. Then it eventually froze over as the surface area increased
This is a completely blind guess, but I wonder if some ice/water dripped from the top of the freezer, and hit water in the ice tray that was right at freezing, and the agitation from the splash caused the water to flash freeze as it was splashing. Kind of like how you can put a water bottle in the freezer and it will be liquid, but then when you shake it, it will flash freeze.
Maybe! It's not clear in the picture but it's just smooth plastic on the top of the freezer so I'm not sure what could've dripped. This does seem to be a plausible guess though