# Odd properties of Gatorade. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2009, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293 "2009-08-22T06:48:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wioombeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f17d59/32.png) [@wioombeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wioombeen)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/1 "2009-08-22T06:48:00Z")
If you put Gatorade in the freezer until it is almost ready to freeze but is still liquid. Then you take it out and shake the container it will crystallize throughout the entire container. If you drink this it has a very odd consistency kind of like cotton. Why is this? I have tried it with it’s competitor Powerade and it does not work. What is it about Gatorade that causes this odd cotton like crystallization? wioombeen ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/2 "2009-08-22T09:39:12Z")
I’ve never heard of or encountered that, but I’ve heard of similar things happening with water bottles left in cars during the winter. My guess for the gatorade would be that the salt (electrolytes) in the fluid lowers the freezing point significantly, and then… goblins, I’ll assume. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/3 "2009-08-22T12:21:01Z")
I’ve never had that happen. Every night before bed, I freeze a half-full bottle of Gatorade. The next morning when I wake, it’s always frozen solid, like an ice cube. No powdery nonsense. (I added fridge-cooled Gatorade to the rest so I don’t have to wait all day for it to thaw at work.) I will admit, though, that it becomes slushy very easily… a frozen bottle of water wouldn’t be so slushy as it’s thawing… it would be icy. When it thaws a bit, shaking the bottle vigorously breaks the frozen stuff into a slushy consistency. Perhaps (a) you’re not freezing it long enough or (b) your freezer isn’t cold enough to achieve true solid Gatorade? ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/4 "2009-08-22T13:03:14Z")
You’ve supercooled the Gatorade, meaning you’ve dropped its temperature below its freezing point. When you shake it up, you create nucleation points (air bubbles, eddies) that allow ice crystallization. The cottony feeling could be due to the ice crystals. I’ve seen the same thing happen with urine specimens I store at -20C. I suspect supercooling is more likely to happen in a solution containing salts than in pure water, but I haven’t tested this rigorously. Vlad/Igor ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/5 "2009-08-22T13:22:57Z")
This > [@wioombeen](#): > > If you drink this it has a very odd consistency kind of like cotton. Followed be this > [@](#): > > The cottony feeling could be due to the ice crystals. I’ve seen the same thing happen with urine specimens I store at -20C. Made me laugh. Might be because I just woke up though. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/6 "2009-08-22T14:37:20Z")
> [@Vlad\_Igor](#): > > …I’ve seen the same thing happen with urine specimens I store at -20C… > Vlad/Igor I bet no one pinches **your** lunch from the employee fridge… ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/7 "2009-08-23T14:19:21Z")
I have the “frozen core disintegrating to slush” happen with Powerade all the time. I do the half frozen, topped off with cool liquid, to take on my mail route. I notice that once you start to get melt, if you shake the bottle vigoruosly it starts to …well…fall apart. I never really thought about why… ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/8 "2009-08-23T15:44:25Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > My guess for the gatorade would be that the salt (electrolytes) in the fluid lowers the freezing point significantly, and then… goblins, I’ll assume. You sir, are rapidly becoming my favorite poster. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/9 "2009-08-23T15:51:26Z")
I used to have a bad old freezer that did this to water bottles. It made the water chewy. Wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/10 "2009-08-23T18:44:43Z")
IIRC, any liquid that can be frozen can technically be supercooled and then caused to crystallize. I’ve seen it done with pure water and it’s pretty neat - just a good tap on the side of the beaker and the whole thing freezes solid. (I could be very wrong, but wouldn’t it be easiest with either something that’s not water at all, or purified water? I’d imagine the sugar and salt in Gatorade would make it much harder to supercool the liquid without it crystallizing.) > [@wierdaaron](#): > > I’ve never heard of or encountered that, but I’ve heard of similar things happening with water bottles left in cars during the winter. > > My guess for the gatorade would be that the salt (electrolytes) in the fluid lowers the freezing point significantly, and then… goblins, I’ll assume. “That’s where the pixies come in” became a fairly standard answer in a basic quantum physics class I took last year. The really unsettling thing was when our professor accepted that as a valid theory. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/11 "2009-08-23T19:45:04Z")
I’m betting the high fructose corn syrup is the goblinus machina in this equation. Most drinks which contain it use carbonation to keep it mixed in, it doesn’t really dissolve, but turns the liquid into a very “liquidy” syrup. I guess what I’m trying to say is that between the corn syrup, the glucose, and the fructose, Gatorade is fairly viscous compared to other “drinks”. (Which is why I never drink it; I always feel the need to wash it down with something.) So freezing it would increase the effect of the viscosity, and then shaking it would turn it into something akin to frozen cotton candy. Try freezing it in a wide-necked bottle and then twirling a stick around in there. There’s a fortune to made in here somewhere! ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/12 "2009-08-23T20:02:08Z")
There’s a bunch of videos on youtube of this effect, though most use plain water. [Here’s one.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpiUZI_3o8s&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/13 "2009-08-23T21:11:32Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > There’s a bunch of videos on youtube of this effect, though most use plain water. [Here’s one.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpiUZI_3o8s&feature=related) That is _super cool!_ [This video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSPzMva9_CE&feature=related) is especially amazing. ---
**Author:** ![horsetech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dec6dc/32.png) [@horsetech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horsetech)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/14 "2009-08-23T22:35:09Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > That is _super cool!_ I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/15 "2009-08-23T22:38:04Z")
Icy what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/16 "2009-08-23T23:05:27Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > Icy what you did there. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![SurveyorAlpha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@SurveyorAlpha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurveyorAlpha)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/17 "2009-08-25T00:46:35Z")
I routinely work outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures. I have witnessed the super-cooling in pure water, Powerade, and (most often) diet Mountain Dew. With the diet soda, the main factor seems to be the pressure (I assume from carbonation, as I work from a 4-wheeler) as the sudden freeze occurs the second I break the seal on the bottle. ---
**Author:** ![horsetech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dec6dc/32.png) [@horsetech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horsetech)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/18 "2009-08-25T02:27:33Z")
WAG - could that be from the CO2 coming out of solution in response to the sudden decrease in vapor pressure, forming bubbles that act as nucleation points? I’m trying to puzzle this out and I’m not sure if I understand or not. ---
**Author:** ![JustThinkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@JustThinkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustThinkin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/19 "2009-08-25T18:18:41Z")
I had this happen to a six pack of carbonated water that we’d left in the garage during winter. I hit one accidentally and it froze in a wave, just like in the video posted by **GameHat**. I immediately went and got \*\*Fetchund \*\*so we could play with the rest of the six pack. Cool effect! ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293/20 "2009-08-25T18:33:48Z")
Used to have it happen all the time with bottles of Dr. Pepper left in the dorm fridge. Fun to watch. The ice would form when I set the bottle down on my desk, jarring it a little. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-properties-of-gatorade/507293.md?page=2)