Hi, Im a Real Genius fan. I started a Real Genius appreciation thread in Cafe Society but the question came as to how to create Ick’s secret ice formula. For those of you who dont know, its a secret substance that is instant ice that evaporates without melting after about an hour of being frozen. This is used for such amazing activitys as ice skating in your dorm hall and bob sledding down stairs. In the Real Genius appreciation thread we have determined that the formula could involve dry ice slabs. Unforunately, that would be incredibly expensive to buy enough for a dorm hall and would be difficult to transport to the dorm before it melts. Assuming the transportion time is not a problem heresiarch came up with this idea:
Im thinking there is a more efficient way to create this stuff and I would love to hear if anyone has any experiance in this field.
I never kid when it comes to temporary ice fields in your dorm hallway .I just got an idea. Is it possible to “can” dry ice in its gaseous state inside a oxygen tank? If so, is there a way to convert it back into a solid as it depressurizes all over your floor? Im not very knowledgable in science and I certenly have no idea if this would work but im determined
On second thought, screw the practical point of view. Take that practical POV straight to the Pit and ask the nice folks there what to do with it. We want to turn the Pentagon into a winter park! Did I say “Pentagon?” I meant your dormitory. [sub]heh heh[/sub]
Now. Dry ice is manufactured by taking CO[sup]2[/sup] and compressing it to a liquid state. (Yeah, you’d need something like an oxygen tank.) Then it’s allowed to expand into a cooled, sealed chamber and forming gaseous CO[sup]2[/sup] and “snow.” I guess if there’s enough “snow” it packs into the container, thus being formed into blocks.
We have two problems. First according to Podkayne, dry ice isn’t smooth. I wonder if it’s possible to polish it?
And we need to find another way to compact the snow, because we don’t want to fill the entire hallway with dry ice; we just want a layer on the floors and stairways. I’m thinking of a device like a mini steamroller (with a polisher on the back end.)
If the steamroller is against the rules, then I submit that we need to abandon dry ice and search for a more suitable substance. Requirements: [ul][li]smooth in its solid form[/li][li]sublimate rather than melt[/li][li]opalescent (not actually a requirement, but it would look really cool)[/li][li]non-toxic (more or less)[/li][li]explosive in its gaseous state (if you really want to be true to the movie)[/ul][/li]
Hydrogen might work, but the dorm would have to be colder than -423F. I guess we need to stipulate a temperature (and pressure) range.
Dry ice can be smooth/slippery. Our chem profs in University would skim it across the lab benches with us like an air hockey puck… you could practically blow a peice the size of a walnut across the table. It slid much better than an ice cube would have.
Wait a minute mmmiiikkkeee, I’m in the middle of some research into a high-temperature form of frozen water.
[ul][li]Ice-two, as I called it, was just regular ice, formed under intense pressure. It takes longer to melt, but it’s really no different than regular ice.[/li][li]Ice-three was an attempt to line up the water molecules during the freezing process. Just theoretical. You’d need nanobots to deposit the molecules.[/li][li]For Ice-four I thought about adding a high-frequnecy sound wave to the water as it freezes. The standing wave would align the molecules in an array. My dog hated that one.[/li][li]Ice-five was an attempt to freeze water on the surface of a metal disk that was subjected to radiation. I got a microscopic quantity of ice that stayed solid to a temperature of 283K (about 50F). A breakthrough! But not quite warm enough and hard to produce in quantity.[/li][li]With Ice-six I gave up trying to line up the molecules directly and started trying to take advantage of the crystalline structure of frost to make it more stable at higher temperatures.[/li][li]By the time I got to Ice-seven I was getting really frustrated. In fact, there really wasn’t an actual Ice-seven. It was just scotch on the rocks. Lots of Scotch. Rocks. Diamonds! Beautiful tetrahedral crystal diamonds![/li][li]Ice-eight! I replaced the metal disk I used in ice-five with a diamond and used a UV-laser instead of radiation. The crytalline structure of the frost layer is takes on the tetrahedral form of the diamond… Yes! Solid up to 314K (104F). I was only able to produce 10[sup]-4[/sup] gms. It would take a super powerful laser and a really big diamond to make any quantity. Unless…[/ul][/li]
For the next iteration I shall substitute Cupric sulfate pentahydrate for the diamond. This will allow whatever minute quantity of ice I create to act as a seed crystal, allowing me to convert ordinary water into ice with no need for the laser. Just drop a tiny sliver into ordinary water and the water will instantly freeze solid! This’ll be great! Get your ice skates ready, Solomon7T BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
I thought you were kidding.