Re: misconception re ice melting under skates

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Herbert H. Gottlieb wrote:

> But at the bottom of page 295, Hewitt claims that the thermal
>  conductivity of the wire transfers heat energy from the top 
> surface of the wire to its bottom surface.  He DOES NOT mention 
> any heat transfer to or from the environment outside the ice block.

I love the "fishline experiment" idea.  But we'd need metal wire inside
the cube, and fishline (or similar) outside, where it can apply pressure
but without acting as a great huge heatsink for transferring environmental
temperature to the innards of the ice cube.  A wire with tiny loops like
those on a fish hook, then tie the nylon line to it with fisherman's
knots.  Do this experiment simultaneously with a duplicate which uses one
long length of wire (maybe use one large ice cube, making two parallel
cuts.

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