Why do we use crushed ice instead of ice cubes?

When I was in fourth grade, my family got a new refrigerator. It was a pretty big deal. Not because the handle was fully functional. Not because there was more magnetic surface area for hanging robot drawings and crumpled report cards. It was a big deal because there was a crushed-ice feature in the door of the freezer. I’d lived my entire life with cubes, and suddenly, there was another option. This crushed ice thing was incredible to my ten-year-old mind. But I was ten. My small brain was seduced, my young eyes blinded by something new and unfamiliar. Now I see crushed ice for what it is: Crushed ice is a rapidly melting mountain of bullshit.

Crushed ice was born from laziness and impatience, a testament to the overall quality of the product. Its only advantage is that it cools liquid more quickly. There’s more surface area, which means your water or soda or coffee or whiskey touches more ice. More contact, more cooling, more quickly. But come on, you can’t wait the extra 17 seconds for your cubes to do the trick? Is your time that valuable? Are you Usain Bolt?

Fittingly, crushed ice’s greatest strength is also a weakness. More surface area means that it melts at a faster rate, which dilutes your drink at an alarming pace. That sherry cobbler suddenly turns into three underwhelming sips under a pile of ice. That delicious root beer is now a glass of brown water, not dissimilar to something you’d find puddled on top of a pool cover. Was that hyperbole? No. It was not.

In addition to the scientific and mathematic inferiority, crushed ice’s greatest flaw is that you always end up eating it. A glass of water turns into a never-ending assault on your teeth as a million icy pebbles shatter inside your mouth. A mint julep becomes a whiskey slushie. An iced coffee is an under-flavored snow cone. There’s no avoiding the fact that you need to eat your drink, which, to me, is absolutely absurd.

I’m not going to monopolize opinions on crushed ice. There are people who enjoy that chunky disruption in a beverage. Our very own deputy editor Andrew Knowlton is one of them. “Crushed ice is an ice eater’s ice,” says Knowlton. “I’m a big ice eater, and it gives me the instant satisfaction of crunching on manageably sized pieces.”

“I also like the fact that it cuts through a sweet drink pretty quickly,” he adds. “There’s an alchemy that happens when room temperature Coca-Cola hits crushed ice. It melts in the perfect way that takes the edge off of that sugar content.” Knowlton admits it’s not perfect for every drink. He wouldn’t pour anything from his extensive bourbon collection over it, but he’ll snack on it all day.

And professional booze slingers agree. ”It helps a high-proof, feel-the-burn cocktail that doesn’t mind a little extra dilution caused from the fastest melting ice around,” explains Jami Olson, owner and bar manager of Minneapolis’ Lyn 65.

Presentation on theme: "Why should crushed ice be used in the experiment? To increase the surface area of ice and keep good contact with the heater. Crushed ice should be used."— Presentation transcript:

1 Why should crushed ice be used in the experiment? To increase the surface area of ice and keep good contact with the heater. Crushed ice should be used because this enhances the thermal contact between the ice and the heater. Therefore, less heat is wasted to heat up the air between the ice cubes. Would you expect the value of the specific latent heat of fusion of ice obtained in the experiment to be higher than, equal to, or lower than the accepted value? Explain briefly. The value obtained is higher than the accepted value. This is because some energy supplied by the heater is lost to the surroundings. The actual energy absorbed by the ice should be lesser.

2 Describe, with the aid of a diagram, how a control set can be set up to improve the accuracy of the experiment. An immersion heater is set up without connecting to the power supply. The actual mass of ice melted by the energy supplied by the heater is the mass difference between the masses of water in the two beakers. Why should the melting ice be used? Melting ice is used to make sure that the temperature of the ice is at 0 °C. Hence, no energy is absorbed as the heat capacity to raise the temperature of the ice to 0 °C.

3 Why is the ‘control’ necessary? This is to account for the ice melted at room temperature. After switching off the heater, the cups are not removed until the drip rates become steady. Why? This is to allow time for the energy from the heater to be conducted to the ice to melt it (water and ice are poor conductors of heat).

4 The immersion heater should not be switched on unless it is fully immersed in water. Why? Otherwise the heater may overheat and gets damaged. What are the possible sources of error in the experiment? Sources of Error Calculated result higher / lower than accepted value? Steam condensing on the top of the heater drips back into the beaker. Higher Some water spills out from the beaker. Lower Energy is lost to the surroundings. Higher Energy from the non-immersed part of the heater is lost to the surrounding and not transferred to the water. Higher

5 A student suggests adding a lid on the beaker so as to improve the accuracy of the experiment. If the beaker is covered with a lid, the steam will not be able to escape from the beaker. As a result, water vapour will condense on the lid and return back to the beaker. This will lead to a serious experimental error. Is the value of specific latent heat of vaporization obtained in the experiment usually higher or lower than the accepted value? Explain briefly. Due to the heat loss to the surroundings, the energy recorded by the kilowatt-hour meter is higher than the energy absorbed by the water. The value obtained is usually higher than the accepted value.

6 Comment on the statement: The calculated value of the specific latent heat of vaporization of water should be lower than the accepted value because some boiling spills out from the cup. Although water may spill out from the beaker, the main source of error is due to the heat lost to the surroundings. As the energy supplied is always greater than the energy absorbed, the calculated value would be greater than the accepted value. Suggest a method to improve the accuracy of the experiment. Use a polystyrene cup instead of a beaker because polystyrene is a poor conductor of heat. Wrapping the beaker with cotton wool.

Why do we use crushed ice?

When should I use crushed ice?

Why does crushed ice last longer?

Does crushed ice melt faster than cubed ice?