"This video captures the elegant way ice forms different shapes, rotates and 'capsizes' as it melts."
"The ice blocks rotated 10-15 times during the 30 minutes it took for them to melt completely."
""Our study contributes fundamental knowledge about ice physics, which is a vital factor in the health of our planet and which needs to be understood to improve climate modeling and weather forecasting," said Leif Ristroph, a mathematician at New York University in New York City, in a ."
Long cylindrical ice blocks were placed in a tank of room-temperature water and filmed as they melted. The ice developed distinct shapes, notably forming a pentagonal cross-section attributed to the angle of rotation. Individual blocks rotated roughly 10–15 times during the approximately 30 minutes required for complete melting. The melting dynamics included shape formation, steady rotation and occasional capsizing events. High-resolution video captured the elegant morphological and kinematic behaviors of melting ice. These observations provide fundamental knowledge about ice physics and dynamic melting processes. Understanding these behaviors supports improved climate modeling, weather forecasting and assessments of planetary health.
Read at Nature
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