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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 |
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"WEIRD ICICLES" IN A REFRIGERATOR
 Sketch of the upwardly-growing refrigerator icicle. |
"In Science Frontiers 100, p. 2, Jul.-Aug. 1995, you have the article WEIRD ICICLES. Well I've just got to tell you about the icicle in my icecube tray. I went to Connecticut on vacation for 2 weeks the latter half of this June (1995). Sometime during that time the electricity was out for 3½ hours. When I opened my refrigerator for a drink, there was a weird stalagmitic icicle with a faint frostiness on the cystalline end. I left it alone for these 2 weeks to watch it recede with my frostfree refrigerator. When I saw your article, I regarded the explanation of a central channel as being inappropriate, for this one had to grow as a normal crystal in the unaccustomed rise in temperature. It too had a tipped angle of perhaps 10° to 15°. What is more is that this is the second time this has happened in a year. How many other refrigerators have done the same? Thus the birdbath crystal is not impossible."
(Masthay, Carl; personal communication, July 17, 1995.)
Questions. Why are all of these upwardgrowing icicles inclined slightly? Why are they all prismatic in contrast to those hanging from our eaves?