And
I can make ice cubes in the shape of the Death Star - way cooler (!!!) and visible with the naked eye to boot !!!
An international team of chemists has set the new record for crafting near-perfect cubic ice crystals. Sadly, the ice cubes are so small, they are invisible to the naked eye. This is according to a study in The Journal of Physical Chemistry. It might sound trivial, but it is an extremely difficult task – one that involves …
>Which is why I use the plastic freeze-them-in-the-freezer ice thingies. They don't water down the drinks.
Same here, though, I never let ice spoil the beverage when out and about ;-)
Grabs coat, checks Psion, crap, not Friday, yet ... puts coat back and returns to cubicle.
Not in a proper single malt you can't, but it enhances a crappy scotch (you know who you are...) and makes it almost drinkable.
Life is too short to drink bad whisky. Especially bad whiskey.
(Who was it said that US whiskey is called sippin' whiskey because only a fool takes more than a sip?)
I've heard it both ways, and another interesting addition of just a few drops of water. Something reacting something... I'm no chemist.
Scotch on the rocks is for people who drink it a lot and a lot of it. I prefer only one per evening. Just like only one glass of Champagne... Too much of a good thing ruins it..
"[...] and another interesting addition of just a few drops of water."
In school physics we were taught that two equal volumes of liquids occupy twice the space. Later on we were told that an exception is alcohol and water. Their molecules fit together to occupy less than their expected space. It is very difficult to distil pure alcohol because of their affinity for each other.
Apparently adding water to an alcoholic drink makes the human body absorb it more effectively. A watered down drink makes you drunk faster.
Antifreeze (glycol) is interesting. As you mix it with water the freezing point decreases - until a critical point is reached after which it increases. This an example of a eutectic curve.
It seems that for every real world rule of physics - there is always a limiting case where it no longer applies.
You write:
"Scientists think cubic ice may be responsible for creating light halos that are sometimes visible around the Sun, as the sunlight is reflected from the clouds."
Most haloes are caused by refraction rather than reflection. Although it is true that a very rare halo display seen in Chile has been explained by the presence of cubic crystals (see https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.39.006080 ) , most of them (including all the ones in your picture) can be explained by ordinary hexagonal ice. Readers who want to waste a LOT of time looking at pretty pictures of haloes can head over to http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halosim.htm
... that super clear ice in a mountain lake, from a video doing the rounds a couple of years back.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/whats-the-explanation-behind-this-incredible-lake-walki-1669578742
I had some ice like that some years ago in a fridge at work, a whole big block that was like perfect glass. Most impressive!
For clear ice, (if memory serves) the trick is to freeze it slowly, like around 0 to -1 Celsius. This gives the ice crystals (hexagonal) a chance push the air out of solution, rather than trapping it in suspension.
Slow freezing is also a good way to freeze-distill (jack) wine/cider, as the crystals will also push the ethanol out of solution.