Set up for Cutting Ice Blocks with a Wire

 

Code Number: 4C20.30

Demo Title: Regelation - Cutting Ice Blocks with a Wire

Condition: Good

Principle: Temperature - Pressure Relationships

Area of Study: Thermodynamics

Equipment: 

Steel Cart, Ice Block Holder, Stands and Rods, Towels, Piano Wire, Lead Bricks (2), Large Ice Block (About 20 to 50 lbs.), Kilogram weights (6).

Procedure:

Set up apparatus as shown. Ice blocks may be made or ordered from general stores, or even bought downtown. Advanced notice of several days is required for any of these. Place the block in the holder, put the wire over it and hang the lead bricks from the wire. The wire will cut through the ice block in several hours. (25 lb block). The metal cart is used to catch the fair amount of water that will develop. A single ice cube may be used as shown. The same wire may be used to cut the ice cube but you do not need to use nearly so much weight. Six kilograms works very nicely. The time for the wire to cut the ice cube is 10 to 12 minutes. There is very little water spillage with this version.

References:

  • Pirooz Mohazzabi, "The Physics of 'String Passing Through Ice' ", TPT, Vol. 49, # 7, Oct. 2011, p. 429.
  • Michael D. Edmiston,  "Letters: Does Skating Melt Ice?",  TPT, Vol. 27, # 5, p. 327, May 1989.
  • Ronald D. Edge,  "Response",  TPT, Vol. 27, # 5. p. 327, May 1989.
  • Wallace A. Hilton, "Ice Cube Regelation", TPT, Vol. 12, # 5, May 1974, p. 307.
  • Marvin J. Pryor, "Regelation is for Everybody",  TPT, Vol. 4, # 8, Nov. 1966, p. 368.
  • "Regelation", TPT, Vol. 3, # 3, March 1965, p. 137.
  • Mark W. Zemansky, "The Regelation of Ice is a Complicated Phenomenon", TPT, Vol. 3, # 7, October 1965, p. 301. 
  • Hk - 4:  Freier and Anderson,  A Demonstration Handbook for Physics.
  • H- 304:  "Wire on Ice Block - Plastic Flow",  DICK and RAE Physics Demo Notebook.
  • Martin C. Sagendorf, "Pressure Melting",  Physics Demonstration Apparatus, 2009. p. 134.
  • Vicki Cobb and Kathy Darling, "A Cold Fact", Bet You Can't!, p. 92.
  • Vicki Cobb and Kathy Darling, "Heavy Pressure", Bet You Can!, p. 46.
  • Vicki Cobb and Kathy Darling, "Hanging by a Thread", Bet You Can!, p. 37.
  • "Peculiar Properties of Ice", The Boy Scientist, p. 174.
  • Janice VanCleave, "32, Catch an Ice Cube", Teaching the Fun of Physics, p. 49.
  • Janice VanCleave, "33, Ice on a Wire", Teaching the Fun of Physics, p. 50.
  • Alan Holden and Phylis Morrison,  "Melting and Transforming Crystals",  Crystals and Crystal Growing,  p. 223.
  • Brown, "Melting Under Pressure", 333 Science Tricks and Experiments, p. 75.
  • Don Herbert, Roy McKie, "Ice-Cube Lift",  Mr. Wizard's Supermarket Science, p. 24.
  • Janice VanCleave, "Flowing Ice", 201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre, and Incredible Experiments, p. 73.
  • "Frozen Solid",  The Usborne Book of Science Experiments,  p. 42.  
  • Joey Green, "Ice Cube Saw", The Mad Scientist Handbook, Vol. 2, p. 55.
  • Julius Sumner Miller, Q114 & A114, Millergrams II – Some More Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds, p. 12 & 75.
https://water.lsbu.ac.uk/water/phase_anomalies.html