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Sunday 16 August 2015

Ice

When the Thames froze in London in late 1683, enterprising tradesmen and entertainers moved their business on to the ice. Coffee houses, souvenir shops, bear-baiting and even ox-roasting did brisk trade until the thaw, on February 8, 1684.

Thames Frost Fair, 1683-84, by Thomas Wyke

An elephant once walked on the frozen River Thames. The last 'frost fair' to take place on the River Thames lasted for four days in February 1814 when the water froze over. Traders and entertainers set up stalls, and an elephant was led across to demonstrate the safety of the ice.

Ice is not slippy - your weight melts it and that IS slippy!

Ice cubes look white due to oxygen and other impurities. If the water is boiled before it's frozen, the resulting ice cubes will be clear.

The white area in the center of ice cubes is a buildup of impurities, mostly sediment and trapped air bubbles. Because freezing starts from the outside in, these materials are pushed to the center of the cube while the pure areas remain clear.

An ice cube takes up about 9% more volume than the water used to make it.

Ice crackles when a drink is poured on it because the outside of the ice warms up and expands.

Craving and chewing ice is associated with iron deficiency with or without anemia, and scientists don’t exactly know why.

Around 10 percent of the land area on Earth is covered by glacial ice, in which 75 per cent of the world's fresh water is held.

Antarctica’s ice sheets contain 90% of the world’s ice – 28 million cu km – holding about 70% of the world’s fresh water.

Antarctica has as much ice as the Atlantic Ocean has water.

Source Mail on Sunday

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