Refridgerator fun

[GreyWanderer]

I was thinking about the fastest way to cool down a can of soda from room temperature to just over the freezing point.

These were the alternatives I thought about:

- Put it in the freezer.

- Put it in some cold water that you previously placed in the fridge, then put it in the freezer when it's about as cold as the water.

- Put the cold water with the soda can into the freezer.

- Same as the two above, only with ice cubes in the water.

- Set it outside the door (in the winter).

- Put it into the snow outside.

- Attach a rope to it, and stand outside swinging it around as fast as you can.

[espritch]

- Put it in the freezer.

My younger brother used to put beers in the freezer when he lived with my Uncle. One day he forgot to take one out and it exploded. My Uncle was not happy.

- Put it in some cold water that you previously placed in the fridge, then put it in the freezer when it's about as cold as the water.

That might help since water conducts heat much better than air. Just don’t leave it in too long.

- Put the cold water with the soda can into the freezer.

If you did that and forgot to take it out, you would end up with the beer encased in ice. Not recommended.

- Same as the two above, only with ice cubes in the water.

Increases the risk of beer being ice bound.

- Set it outside the door (in the winter).

How would you protect it from the squirrels?

- Put it into the snow outside.

The squirrels could still find it.

- Attach a rope to it, and stand outside swinging it around as fast as you can.

Depending on how fast you swing it, friction could actually end up heating the beer.


My recommendation would be to just go ahead and drink it warm. ;)

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

Ice bucket
Ice
Salt

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question58.htm
When you are making ice cream, the temperature around the ice cream mixture needs to be lower than 32 F if you want the mixture to freeze. Salt mixed with ice creates a brine that has a temperature lower than 32 F. When you add salt to the ice water, you lower the melting temperature of the ice down to 0 F or so. The brine is so cold that it easily freezes the ice cream mixture.

[Nasarius]

Since Mahatma's quote mentioned ice cream, that reminded me of...

liquid nitrogen

http://www.phy.bnl.gov/~takai/cryocream/
:D

[Thumbo]

Originally posted by espritch
My younger brother used to put beers in the freezer when he lived with my Uncle. One day he forgot to take one out and it exploded. My Uncle was not happy.

Never had that happen (yet :D) though I do pop beers in the freezer for a quick cool sometimes, and yes, I occasionally do forget them.

What I can say is that beer that has been frozen and subsequently thawed is absolutely disgusting and undrinkable :mad:

[Iconoclast]

Originally posted by Thumbo
What I can say is that beer that has been frozen and subsequently thawed is absolutely disgusting and undrinkable :mad:
Since this is the Science forum, can anyone shed some light on why that is so? I often leave Coke cans in the fridge too long and they partially freeze. I used to let them thaw out then put them back in the fridge again, but they were always dead flat when I opened them, so now I just throw them away unopened and still frozen if I don't take them out in time. So, what's the mechanism that causes a can of coke to go flat if it gets frozen? Anybody?

[FreakBoy]

I would not suggest placing the can in the tub of cold water and both in the freezer. The Freezer has only so much "energy" it can spend on freezing things. If the water is not yet frozen, then the energy is going to be spent on both the water AND the soda.


Originally posted by Iconoclast

Since this is the Science forum, can anyone shed some light on why that is so? I often leave Coke cans in the fridge too long and they partially freeze. I used to let them thaw out then put them back in the fridge again, but they were always dead flat when I opened them, so now I just throw them away unopened and still frozen if I don't take them out in time. So, what's the mechanism that causes a can of coke to go flat if it gets frozen? Anybody?

I would assume that the flatness issue comes from the low freezing point of carbon dioxide as opposed to the water and and other substances that are located in the drink.

Freeze the water, and the carbon dioxide is free to separate from the water.


But.... I'm only assuming and for the enjoyment of my own ego would like to know if I'm correct. :)

[The Don]

One of life's little joys, spontaneous nucleation.

Place a bottle of fizzy pop (soda) or beer in the freezer long enough so that it ges really cold but no so long (or so cold) that it explodes. The contents of the bottel should at this stage still be liquid (albeit supercooled).

Now open the bottle, the carbon dioxide bubbles start to form and provide nucleii for the formation of ice crystals. Immedately the whole thing freezes much to the consternation of the drinker.

If your'e really lucky, the ice formed will become spherical or hemispherical.

[Jon_in_london]

Originally posted by Iconoclast

Since this is the Science forum, can anyone shed some light on why that is so? I often leave Coke cans in the fridge too long and they partially freeze. I used to let them thaw out then put them back in the fridge again, but they were always dead flat when I opened them, so now I just throw them away unopened and still frozen if I don't take them out in time. So, what's the mechanism that causes a can of coke to go flat if it gets frozen? Anybody?

This is because of the pre-quantum wave function of the CO2 and the sugar in the coke are normally harmonised. Freezing creates crystals that contain powefull auric fields that disrupt the natural harmony of CO2 and sugar due to quantum entaglement of the leptons within the sugar. This causes the sugar and CO2 to have conflicting 'chi' or 'qi' and thus the CO2 leaves the sugar water mix. :cool:

[MRC_Hans]

Originally posted by GreyWanderer
I was thinking about the fastest way to cool down a can of soda from room temperature to just over the freezing point.

These were the alternatives I thought about:

- Put it in the freezer.

As the temperature difference is bigger than in the fridge, heat will be conducted out quicker. Problem is the risk of freezing it.

- Put it in some cold water that you previously placed in the fridge, then put it in the freezer when it's about as cold as the water.

As the cold water acts a heat conductor and reservoir, the soda will cool fast as long as the water is colder than the the soda. Afterwards, forget the water (explanation below).

- Put the cold water with the soda can into the freezer.

No this is a bad idea, because now you have to cool BOTH the water and the soda. This will take longer.

- Same as the two above, only with ice cubes in the water.

As the ice cubes melt, they cool the water to zero degrees celcius. The cold surroundings in the fridge speeds up the process. This is the fastest so far. Even faster in the freezer, but watch out for freezing!

- Set it outside the door (in the winter).

The cooling capacity of the outside is far greater than that of a fridge, especially if there's wind. In frosty weather, watch for freezing.

- Put it into the snow outside.

If there is enough snow, OK, but if you just put it in and it can melt the snow touching it, then there will be a thin layer od insulating air around it, and it may actually take longer to cool (It ca nbe quite warm inside an Igloo), better put it in water with snow in it.

- Attach a rope to it, and stand outside swinging it around as fast as you can.

Jolly good idea, remember to open it just after swinging! ;)

Now for beverages being destroyed by freezing, heheh: Things dissolved in water lowers the freezing point (as demonstrated when you salt your drive-way). But what happens when the fluid freezes is that the things dissolved in it are driven out, so the Ice is pure water, and the sugar, carbon dioxide etc. is left separated, or rather it is dissolved in ever greater concentrations in the remaining, unfrozen water. When the beeverage unfreezes, there is no guarantee that it will return to its original state, this is especially true for beer, which is a quite complex substance (unless its Budweiser, of course).

Hans

[Iconoclast]

Originally posted by Jon_in_london
This is because of the pre-quantum wave function of the CO2 and the sugar in the coke are normally harmonised. Freezing creates crystals that contain powefull auric fields that disrupt the natural harmony of CO2 and sugar due to quantum entaglement of the leptons within the sugar. This causes the sugar and CO2 to have conflicting 'chi' or 'qi' and thus the CO2 leaves the sugar water mix. :cool:
See, that's what I thought. I just wanted to hear someone else say it first.

[Iconoclast]

Originally posted by MRC_Hans
Now for beverages being destroyed by freezing, heheh: Things dissolved in water lowers the freezing point (as demonstrated when you salt your drive-way). But what happens when the fluid freezes is that the things dissolved in it are driven out, so the Ice is pure water, and the sugar, carbon dioxide etc. is left separated, or rather it is dissolved in ever greater concentrations in the remaining, unfrozen water. When the beeverage unfreezes, there is no guarantee that it will return to its original state, this is especially true for beer, which is a quite complex substance (unless its Budweiser, of course).

Hans
So you're saying that the CO2 and all the other bits and pieces will separate from the water. That explains it quite well, thanks Hans.

[Jon_in_london]

My explaination is much better!!!

BTW, I will soon be able to offer pro-quantum-lepto-disentaglers that will stop this from happening. Only $20193.99 a pop!

[LW]

Originally posted by GreyWanderer
I was thinking about the fastest way to cool down a can of soda from room temperature to just over the freezing point.
I'm not so sure about technicalities but I believe that the correct answer will somehow involve liquid nitrogen.

Of course, spectacular results can also be made by utilizing dry ice. One of the most surprising demonstrations that I've seen happened on one party where one participant had taken 5kg of dry ice with him. He dropped a rather large chunk into a glass of sparkling wine (the chunk filled perhaps 2/3 of the glass). The result was instant distillation. The alcohol got separated from the water and the water froze, leaving a thin layer of pure (and cold) alcohol on top.

[DrMatt]

Originally posted by LW

I'm not so sure about technicalities but I believe that the correct answer will somehow involve liquid nitrogen.

Of course, spectacular results can also be made by utilizing dry ice. One of the most surprising demonstrations that I've seen happened on one party where one participant had taken 5kg of dry ice with him. He dropped a rather large chunk into a glass of sparkling wine (the chunk filled perhaps 2/3 of the glass). The result was instant distillation. The alcohol got separated from the water and the water froze, leaving a thin layer of pure (and cold) alcohol on top.

Do people distinguish between distillation and freeze-drying?

[Dragonrock]

Originally posted by LW

I'm not so sure about technicalities but I believe that the correct answer will somehow involve liquid nitrogen.

Of course, spectacular results can also be made by utilizing dry ice. One of the most surprising demonstrations that I've seen happened on one party where one participant had taken 5kg of dry ice with him. He dropped a rather large chunk into a glass of sparkling wine (the chunk filled perhaps 2/3 of the glass). The result was instant distillation. The alcohol got separated from the water and the water froze, leaving a thin layer of pure (and cold) alcohol on top.

I had a roommate in the army who enjoyed drinking vodka, cold, with no ice. He kept his bottle in the freezer and would pour it straight into a glass. One day he got some dry ice from the medical company and put the vodka in with the chunks. After an hour or so he poured a glass (he had to use a glove to handle the bottle so he should have seen this coming) and took a swig. He started coughing and when some blood came up I took him to the troop medical clinic (kind of a combination ER and general practitioners office). He was lucky he hadn't been able to swallow it, so his throat was fine, the blood was from cracks in his tongue. The doc told him his mouth looked like he had drank boiling water. The moron lived off of milkshakes and mashed potatoes for a couple weeks and it took months before he could taste anything.

[Soapy Sam]

Jon- you've been drinking the tap water again, have'nt you?

Here's a good trick next time you're in the Sahara or on safari in the Serengeti. Get an absorbent, non-wind proof bag, heavy cotton or similar. Soak it in water.
Put some beer bottles inside. Tie to the wing mirror of a truck, under some kind of sunshade. Drive thirty klicks as fast as possible across country. Your beer will now be cold, thanks to the miracle of latent heat of evaporation.

Be warned that it will froth all over the place when opened, but thats African roads for you.