A local radio station is having a contest where they’re giving away tickets to the Bahamas to the first person who can melt a big block of ice (either 5 lbs or 50 lbs, I forget) using only their body heat. I have no intention to enter the contest, but I am intrigued. What would be the fastest way to melt a big block of ice using only your body. You can’t pee on it, but I think that’s the only prohibition. Any ideas?
Not really any options here, no secrets or tricks. You’ve got to get the heat from you directly to the ice. First eat a really good hot meal. Then maybe have a drink of alcohol to dilate your capillaries and bring more heat to the surface. Also do some aerobic exercise to heat your surface. Then strip naked and hug the ice, surrounding as much ice surface area as possible with skin, especially your head, which will provide a lot of heat transfer. Then go to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia.
A 5-lb block would be pretty good sized and take a while to melt; I can’t imagine doing it with 50 pounds, that could take days. But then again, this is a stupid radio station stunt so who knows.
Urinate on it
I think you can do better by doing excerecise while hugging the ice. Strap it to your back and ride a stationary bike, for example.
The only strategies I can think of are to (1) have as much of your body surface touching the ice as possible and (2) do exercises or something to increase your body heat.
The problem is that it seems like doing (1) makes it harder to do (2) and vice versa. Plus, there will be some pain involved with the prolonged ice to skin contact.
I don’t have a cite available but recently a woman was involved in a lawsuit because she suffered frostbite from a competition like the one you are discussing. Seems she sat on it and …well, hmm… it didn’t end very well. 
I guess you could say, she literally froze her ass off.
Place the ice block in a good sleeping bag or other insulating container and get in with it.
On second thought, if you want to put more effort you can do a lot better than just strapping it to your back. You need to build a water-cooled undergarment, which I believe was used in the space program at some point. It would consist of numerous tubes in contact with your skin. A pump circulates water between this system and a bowl containing the ice. You need to be able to ride a stationary bike while wearing this.
Pick it up and drop it, repeatedly, or is that against the rules too?
I’d say if it’s possible, pick it up and start running (or get on a stationary bike. Hold it up with your head etc alternating as parts get too cold. If it’s just a square block (and I’m guessing you can’t break it up like Mangetout asked about) then hug it while running around.
Well, instead of peeing on it, you can just release some other bodily fluid onto it. I guess repeatedly throwing up on it might work.
If they will allow you to break up the ice, get a hammer and a towel or an ice crusher and crush the ice into small bits thereby increasing it’s exposed surface area by orders of magnitude then begin eating/drinking it while pedaling a stationary bike or exercising. It’s just over 2 quarts of ice. I think I could easily consume that in less than an hour as chipped ice if I had to.
I think a combination of some of these ideas would work.
- Break it into smaller pieces so you have the air temp (hopefully above freezing) working for you.
- Do some physical activity to generate excessive body heat.
- Use the chunks of ice to rub on your body and cool yourself,
or dump them down your shirt and shorts.
IIRC, the contest where the woman got frostbite used dry ice (frozen CO2, -78 degrees C), not regular water ice. Hopefully there’s someone with more intelligence overseeing this particular publicity stunt…
Make sure you direct your exhaled breath directly onto the ice, too. Every little bit helps. As for rubbing your body agasint the ice, keep in mind that the blood vessels in that body part will rapidly contrict, diminishing your heat loss in the area, so you’ll have to keep the ice moving over your skin (or keep your body moving over the ice, i.e. don’t just lie on it and wait).
Naturally, your skin will start to get wet from the melting ice. If you’re allowed, use a towel to keep drying your skin and wiping any any accumulated water on the ice block’s surface. Even a thin layer of water between your skin and the ice will slow heat transfer.
Of course, the whole thing is a recipe for frostbite.
Hey Nanoda,
Just looked this up. Probably one of the less-well-conceived radio contests ever held. The contestants must have been even dumber than your average radio contestant- only a complete idiot would sit on a block of dry ice for concert tickets.
-Apoptosis
Trying to melt any significant amount of ice with your body heat is bound to result in frostbite and/or hypothermia. the best strategy would be to drink a lot of water in the couple of hours before the contest so that you could pee over the ice later.
I would imagine that simply blowing or breathing on it would probably be the best way. 98F continuously in contact w/ the ice, as opposed to lowering your temp. or creating a “cooler”. Just give the ice plenty of space to melt and exhale warm air onto it.
IF a person could urinate long enough or often enough and it was permissable then sure, that’d be the way to go but…
Now if we could make snowcones out of it. 
sailor “…so that you could pee over the ice later.”
Reminds me of the ooold joke about huntin polar bears…and how to get one.
Pulverize it into pieces small enough to swallow.
Eat it.