Do It Yourself: Ice Stalagmites

Materials: Four bottles of mineral water, One bowl, A freezer Instructions: Take the labels off the bottles of water. Place the bottles in a freezer and leave undisturbed for at least 30 minutes. As soon as it looks like a bottle is forming ice crystals, gently remove them from the freezer. Try carefully pouring the […]

Materials:

Four bottles of mineral water, One bowl, A freezer

Instructions:

Take the labels off the bottles of water.
Place the bottles in a freezer and leave undisturbed for at least 30 minutes.
As soon as it looks like a bottle is forming ice crystals, gently remove them from the freezer.
Try carefully pouring the supercooled water into the bowl over an ice cube – you’ll form an ice stalagmite.

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Why does this happen?

The ice generally forms on microscopic scratches and bumps called nucleation sites.

Nucleation sites, or ‘bumps’, occur within most containers with imperfections. If you remove the nucleation sites from the water, the water cannot form ice crystals easily.

Pure water (without impurities) will form ice crystals at zero degrees Celsius or lower.

However if pure water is cooled down very slowly, in a very smooth container with no dust inside, you can make water stay a liquid at temperatures below zero.

Note: Be patient – this can be a difficult experiment to reproduce!

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