Many of the mishaps in folktales could be remedied if the protagonists knew some scientific principles.
STEM books and activities for fun
by Lois Wickstrom
Making a Hole in an Ice Cube Ice cubes are solid. Ice is frozen water. Water is frozen in the freezer, but liquid at room temperature. That’s why you get liquid water out of your sink faucet, and not a frozen stream like an icicle. If you leave an ice cube at room temperature it will melt and become liquid water again. But sometimes we want to melt ice quickly. There are three ways to melt ice: pressure, salt, and heat. Pressure: You could put a long thin weight on top of an ice cube. The weight would put pressure on the ice and melt it. But, while the weight is doing its melting work, the warm air in the room is also melting the ice cube from all around the outside edges. The ice cube will be small by the time the weight works its way through to the bottom of the cube. Salt: You could shake salt on the ice cube. Each grain of salt will eat a tiny ditch in the ice cube. Once you can no longer see the grain of salt in the ditch, you can add another grain of salt and let the ice melt again. Repeat this process with another grain of salt in the ditch each time the ice melts the ditch a little deeper, you will get a hole. As in the pressure example, the warm air in the room will be melting the entire outside of the ice cube, so the ice cube will be much smaller when you finally melt a hole through it. Heat: You could place one end of a drinking straw on the ice cube, and blow into it. Keep breathing and blowing. Your breath is warm because your body is warm. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can blow a hole in the ice cube. Can you think of other ways to use heat to make a hole in the ice cube? Children discover the world around them when they play. They discover in nature what they will later learn to call science. Our books at http://www.LookUnderRocks.com feed this joyous approach to life.
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Lois Wickstrom
former head science teacher at Science in the City Summer Camp. Now writing STEM fiction and non-fiction Archives
March 2022
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