Pixel Pile #251: Freezer Phenomenon #3 - This is a plea for help. Even if you just use it as fodder to link in your web log. But we have a distressing situation in our household that has gone on far too long.
Well, we have a couple, but we'll stick to what's appropriate for this forum.
Our freezer appears to defy the laws of gravity. Perhaps time and space, too. At any rate, theorems of physics are being threatened, or perhaps just demonstrated in a way I've never heard of before.
Our ice trays generate ice stalagmites. It's been going on for some time, but was first documented formally last September, soon after I got my digital camera. Then a couple of weeks ago, I documented another one. Note, these have been single cube occurences.
Not one icy spike. Not two. Four of them, each pointing at distinctly different angles (this may not be clear from the documentation, but, hey, what do you want for free).
As I've said before, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. They appear in random cubes in the tray pattern, pointing in random directions, and although they are usually straight, they have been known to appear with a slight curve. This is a standard issue General Electric household refrigerator, not some cutting edge liquid nitrogen device. In fact, this particular image was shot in situ (that means "right whar it wuz" if you're from Georgia). Ghosts have been suggested, but no bodies have been stored in this freezer. Well, other than small portions of cows. And chickens. Maybe a few pigs.
Ya think?
Nah. But we're now bowing to the great unwashed masses of the Internet (that would be you) to help up solve this mystery. Susan is now drinking her vodka straight up. I don't know how long she can last. We welcome all rational attempts at explanation. Those that are less than rational will be treated accordingly. Please feel free to use the comments system linked at the end of this post, or on the page with the latest documentation itself.
There is no prize, other than us retaining what little sanity we have left. And trust me, you don't want that, nor can we spare it.
^ posted @ 01:23:14 - 02.12.01
Peanut Gallery: 7 comments
ntn said....
Do you have more than the one ice tray living in your freezer?
Posted by [ntn] @ 03:14 PM EST, 02.13.01
PhotoDude said....
Yes, there are four ice trays, and the stalagmites seem to have no preference, except whichever one is on top.
Otherwise, there are assorted standard frozen food items, but nothing unusual. Nothing generating wind, or an electrical field.
I must say, I'm sorely disappointed in the web logging community for not answering our plea for help. Susan is still drinking her vodka straight up, and, well, it's getting ugly.
Surely someone knows a P.H.D of Freezerology who can be called on for an answer.
I have a guess as to how the ice stalagmites formed:
Since water freezes when it expands, or rather, crystallized water is bigger than liquid water. Normally, I would think water in a tray freezes from the top on down, due to the fact that the surface of the water exposed to the air gets coldest first. Towards the end of the process the whole cube pushes up a bit.
In this case, perhaps the tray conducts the cold to the water on the bottom half of the cube more efficiently than the air conducts cold to the water on the top of the cube. As a result, the part of the cube touching the tray forms first, and the water exposed to the air freezes next.
When the ice in the middle of the cube is so cold that it is ready to freeze, it cannot freeze, because in order to freeze and form ice crystals it first must expand. The path of least resistance for the ready to freeze water, is to force it's way out- violently- right through the top of the cube. Once liberated, and still ready to freeze, the water is free to do its thing, oila, instant ice stalagmite.
Hmmm, Mr. Chaos, an interesting theory. Chaos theory. You had me on the edge of my seat until you got to the part about the moral and physical dilemma of the water in the middle. I saw no way out of the plot you had constructed. Your violent ending felt somehow implausible.
But life is often that way. It certainly is more plausible than the "wormhole whose other end is underwater" theory.
I may have to go troll one of those sci.* newsgroups on Usenet. I need some kind of corroborating evidence, short of placing a videocam in the freezer. But I thank you for your well thought out theory. I think you've got a good storyline, with a basic kernel of truth, and if we can just work on that ending, maybe we'll have a hit.
Perhaps the points are being formed in the same manner as stalagmites in a cave. If your freezer is the "frost-free" variety, frost may be melting from the top of the freezer and dripping down on to the ice cube trays. Just a guess.
