Why do Ice Cubes stick Together?

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Why do Ice Cubes stick Together?

When ice cubes are dropped into a glass of juice, slowly we can observe that some cubes will get attached to one another. You can also observe that when few pieces of ice are collectively put into a container, after some time few of them attach to one another. When the water is added to the ice cubes the temperature of the water condenses the ice at the contact surface. The ice cubes are found to condense at their junction and then freeze back again. This might be due to the temperature of the ice cubes being well below the freezing temperature. The ice cubes could freeze the water that has come in between the ice cubes. The extremely cold temperature can be the reason for freezing of water in between and then solidify so that the ice cubes are sticked to one another.

The heavy moisture levels inside the freezer that pass in between small ice cubes also get freezed up. This moisture between the closer ice cubes also solidifies to attach the two ice cubes. There is another physical phenomenon explained to answer why ice cubes stick together. It goes on like this.

When there is water on the surface of the ice, the temperature of the ice cubes is transferred to water and that of water will be transferred to ice. The surface molecules on ice will get exchanged with that of water in response to the temperature change. The temperature of ice will be very less than zero degrees, while that of water is more than zero degrees. The exchange of molecules will take place till the temperature comes to equilibrium. So, if frozen ice and the water molecules reach the Zero degree temperature then exchange of molecules stop and hence both the sides get freezed. The same thing happens with the other cube also.

The water in between the two closer ice cubes freeze and connects both the ice cubes.

Author: Hari M

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