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simont

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Sun 2003-06-01 12:37
Frozen cucumber

That's twice that's happened now. Yesterday I thought it'd be nice to have some cucumber with my ham sandwiches for lunch, so I bought a cucumber at the local shop, chopped off a portion, and did to the rest what my mum always used to do, which is to pour a little water into the bottom of a mug and stand the cucumber in the mug, so that the cut end is underwater and doesn't dry out. Then I stuck the whole assembly in the fridge.

Today I came to take the cucumber out, and found that the water had frozen solid. In the fridge; I didn't put it in the freezer by mistake, and the milk that was right next to the mug is perfectly liquid. And the same thing happened last week (only less spectacularly), so it's not a one-off weirdness either.

So apparently standing a cucumber in water significantly raises the freezing point of the water. How very odd. Apart from anything else, I thought dissolving random stuff in water usually lowered its freezing point (hence salting roads). Anyone got an explanation?

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[identity profile] antinomy.livejournal.comSun 2003-06-01 04:41
Have you tested this with just a mug of water? My hunch is your fridge is too cold but that milk freezes below freezing, so you're not seeing it...
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[identity profile] atreic.livejournal.comSun 2003-06-01 05:44
And you did say only a *little* water in the bottom of the mug... maybe the milk is unnoticably frozen round the edges but still pours?
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[personal profile] simontSun 2003-06-01 06:24
Well, I thought it was only a little water when I ran the tap. When I actually put the cucumber in, though, the difference in cross-sectional areas between cucumber and mug turned out to be really quite small and the water came 2/3 of the way up the mug. I think next time I'll remember to put the cucumber in first :-)
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[personal profile] simontSun 2003-06-01 06:18
That's a good point; I've just put a mug of water in. We'll see what happens.
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[identity profile] antinomy.livejournal.comSun 2003-06-01 06:25
Aah, don't you just love the scientific method... :)

BTW, how do you get your comments pages looking like this?
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[personal profile] simontSun 2003-06-01 06:35
I'm using LJ's shiny new S2 style system, which will at some point take over from the old one. S2 controls the comments and reply pages as well as the main journal pages.

It's also a full programming language rather than a set of ad-hoc rules for pasting together pieces of HTML, which means that the incredibly fiddly HTML hackery I described in a recent entry is no longer necessary - my S2 code can generate the appearance I want in an entirely sane manner without having to resort to weird comment trickery.

I'm not sure whether S2 is available to everybody or just to paid/permanent accounts; in either case the URL you have to use to enable it isn't made conveniently available because it's currently still being tested. Even if you can enable S2 on your journal, though, I imagine that as a free user you won't be able to choose from anything except the standard styles - and frankly, the comments pages on the standard styles are butt-ugly. I had to redesign this one extensively before I was anywhere near happy with it; it started off looking more like this. What do you think? :-)
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[identity profile] hilarityallen.livejournal.comSun 2003-06-01 07:31
The other option is that in a small portion of your fridge, the laws of space-time no longer hold. This would be just too wierd.
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[personal profile] simontMon 2003-06-02 03:23
You're quite right, it turns out. The water froze on its own as well, and the milk is still fine. Cheers :-)
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[identity profile] philipstorry.livejournal.comSun 2003-06-01 13:47
My fridge expertise is limited...
Something strange in the fridge, you say?

I've seen that before somewhere... *racks brain*

Are you living in a tall apartment building? Do you have a secret stairway to a temple complex behind one of your walls? Has Bill Murray come round to chat you up recently? Do you play the Cello?

Who you gonna call?
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[identity profile] sphyg.livejournal.comMon 2003-06-02 03:00
Why don't you just chop off the dry end the next time you want some cucumber?
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