Why is it so?
Something odd happened last night.
*cue X-Files music*
Snooze and I were just settling down to dinner when we opened a bottle of wine. It had been in the freezer for maybe two hours because it was essentially room temperature when we got it home.
When it came out of the freezer, we could clearly see some little bits of ice floating in it, but only a couple of bits.
But here's the weird part.
Snooze pulled the cork and within seconds the whole thing froze solid in front of us. So quick was the process that Snooze actually put it back down on the bench and backed off fearing some kind of winey explosion (not of the Andrew Bolt kind - ZING).
It settled down to just a solid block of ice and no explosions were had, but it was very bizarre.
I reckon it might have something to do with the alcohol escaping when the bottle was opened allowing the wine inside to freeze rapidly - but that's pure poorly-educated speculation.
Any science nerds want to have a crack at solving this one?
Where's Julius Sumner Miller when you need him?
*cue X-Files music*
Snooze and I were just settling down to dinner when we opened a bottle of wine. It had been in the freezer for maybe two hours because it was essentially room temperature when we got it home.
When it came out of the freezer, we could clearly see some little bits of ice floating in it, but only a couple of bits.
But here's the weird part.
Snooze pulled the cork and within seconds the whole thing froze solid in front of us. So quick was the process that Snooze actually put it back down on the bench and backed off fearing some kind of winey explosion (not of the Andrew Bolt kind - ZING).
It settled down to just a solid block of ice and no explosions were had, but it was very bizarre.
I reckon it might have something to do with the alcohol escaping when the bottle was opened allowing the wine inside to freeze rapidly - but that's pure poorly-educated speculation.
Any science nerds want to have a crack at solving this one?
Where's Julius Sumner Miller when you need him?
Very spooky. My Google-fu has turned up nothing.
ReplyDeleteThat was me, by the way. I hit the return key by accident before I'd put my name in.
ReplyDeleteI had to come out of lurking to solve your mystery.
ReplyDeleteWater expands when it freezes (because of the way the molecules line up when they crystallise - they take up more room than in liquid). Because of this, when it's under pressure, it needs to be colder than its normal freezing point to expand and get solid. Also, alcohol's freezing point is much lower than water's, which was helping to keep it all liquid.
The wine was sealed in a bottle, which meant it had limited room to expand, ie it was under pressure. If you'd looked at the bottle right before it was opened, the liquid would have been expanded right up to the cork rather than having the usual gap of air. If it got cold enough, the wine would have eventually frozen, expanded and broken the bottle.
The temperature of the wine in the bottle was probably a number of degrees below zero. When the bottle was opened, the pressure on the wine (and therefore the water) dropped suddenly. It was already below the freezing point it needed to be at for normal atmospheric pressure, so it froze.
Cool*, hey.
* pun intended
Spin me out. (Not spin the bottle). I wish I'd seen it.
ReplyDeleteSherd,
ReplyDeleteThat is unutterably brilliant.
Thankyou for coming out of lurks-ville to enlighten us - I honestly thought no-one was going to be able to provide an answer. Wow.
Sherd - I second the thanks for the solution.
ReplyDeleteAlas, in this case, I beg to differ. The real explanation is shorter and simpler. Long-dormant mutant genes must have recently been activated in the Snooze, such that said Snooze now has the power to rapidly chill substances at will; a power known as the will-chill.
Oh Mike,
ReplyDeleteThat was pour.
I'll get my coat.