Freezing Weather Science Fair Project?

[230RN]

It's about 13°F out there on my balcony right now.   I was tempted to replicate a cold-weather experiment I did a couple of years ago.  I filled an empty CO₂ cartridge from one of my pellet guns with de-aerated water and set it out to freeze.  

As the water approached the freezing point, of course it expands (which is why ice floats) and starts slowly squooshing out of the hole in the CO₂ cartridge into the open air and then freezes.

As this keeps happening, a long curley-cue of ice forms and over several dozen tries, I got quite long ice curley-cues.  These are only two pics of many showing the effect.

Isn't science wonderful?

I don't have the capability, but I wouldn't mind seeing a stop-motion video of the effect.  Might be a good Science Fair project for a young one.  (Making a film of it.  AFAIK, Science Fair stuff does not take place in freezing environments.)

Other containers may be used, of course.

Terry, 230RN

These were done at 22°F a couple of years ago.  The blob at the beginning of the curl is quite characteristic.

[RocketMan]

That's pretty cool.  How did you de-aerate the water?  Was it just boiled for a while?

[230RN]

Tap water just boiled, let cool under cover, syringe to fill the cartridge to tippy-top.  Not sure it's all that critical.  I was trying to see if freezing a cartridge full of water would split it (they hold ~900 psi of CO2), thinking maybe the hole would freeze up first and seal it.

But noooo...  what a surprise a couple of hours later when the spiral showed up.

I was just trying to eliminate the dissolved air variable.  I'm sure this effect would occur, dissolved air or not.

Reports indicate this works in a regular household freezer, too.

[zahc]

is de-aerated important? Why?

[230RN]

I don't think so, see previous post.  I only added that information in the sense that one did an experiment in zero gravity.  Should be mentioned, but probably not critical.

[Nick1911]

That is neat.

I've wondered in the past about how much ultimate pressure freezing water can exert.  I'm sure it's well known, but I haven't bothered to look it up.

[230RN]

I don't know what the pressures are (that's what I originally wanted to check out) but it's enough to split iron pipes and huge boulders.  Next time around, I'm going to try to pinch-seal the end of the CO₂ cartridge.

I'm sure for the diligent googler, there's a table somewhere on ice's ultimate pressure, but I'm so sick of wading through irrelevant commercial hits on search engines that I don't want to try.  Maybe my Machinery Handbook has the info, or my Chem and Rubber book from 1953.

[zxcvbob]

That is neat.

I've wondered in the past about how much ultimate pressure freezing water can exert.  I'm sure it's well known, but I haven't bothered to look it up.

Also, what happens if it's contained in something stronger than its ultimate pressure -- does it solidify into a different crystalline structure?  (maybe Vonnegut's "ice 9")  Or does it remain a supercooled liquid?

ETA:  http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/water_phase_diagram.html  Some of the solid phases have densities greater than 1 gm per cc.  (I wonder why they totally skipped ice-9 in the numbering?)  So water can freeze without expanding in extraordinary circumstances (high pressure)

[cordex]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point#/media/File:Phase_diagram_of_water.svg

[HankB]

Anyone doing this as a SCHOOL project better be careful to emphasize that these empty CO₂ pressure vessels are used for something, anything, OTHER than pellet guns.

[230RN]

Anyone doing this as a SCHOOL project better be careful to emphasize that these empty CO₂ pressure vessels are used for something, anything, OTHER than pellet guns.

Ohhh, yeah, sure,  like club soda makers, or even whipped cream maker (nitrous oxide) cartridges.  Plumb forgot about that; my head's still stuck in saner days.

In fact, better not even call them "cartridges."

Saner times.

Terry

REF (Nitrous Oxide chargers):
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mastrad-N2O-Chargers-For-Siphon-Whipper-Whipped-Cream-Maker/185544257?adid=22222222254364662576&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=b&wl1=s&wl2=c&wl3=368011509506&wl4=dsa-786620262220&wl5=9028722&wl6=79250446074&wl7=&wl8=&veh=sem

[dogmush]

I don't know what the pressures are (that's what I originally wanted to check out) but it's enough to split iron pipes and huge boulders.  Next time around, I'm going to try to pinch-seal the end of the CO₂ cartridge.

I was going to say you could weld it shut to get a pressure resistant seal, but then I thought that through.  Probably don't do that.

[230RN]

Might be a tricky way to do it with spot welding somehow.... like they do with battery tabs, where the weld heat never gets to the guts of the cell.

But we're getting beyond "Science Fair" stuff and the visual aspects of this particular phenomenon.