Oh, God!
The title of this post is "Oh, God!" not to "take the Lord's name in vain" but as in saying, "Oh, God, you've done it again!" There is a prank that God laid out for us many many years before man started using air-tight seals. It is the freezing temperature of water, and I wouldn't be surprised if in heaven there are many jokes between angels and our forefathers about this one, especially those that never had the experience of using glass containers. I imagine they watched with childish grins as Granny Smith tried freezing a jar of canned apples in the icebox. Oh, what a hoot!
First of all, I am pretty confident that water is the only (or at least one of the few) liquids that expands upon getting colder. So water, in itself, is quite a prank. It doesn't start to expand until 4 degrees Celsius. In all that coldness, it acts normal, slowly shrinking until 4 degrees where it proudly exclaims, "HA! FOOLS!" as we watch, dumbfounded, nearly frozen, and on top of it all, absolutely pissed.
Second of all, it's used or occurs naturally in all of our drinks, and most of our foods. Put a can or bottle of any drink with less alcohol than wine in the freezer and what happens? It's ALMOST there, ALMOST frozen and at this point, God has decided, it would be a good time for a catastrophe. The container gives way and the nearly-freezing fluid explodes or drizzles or whatevers out and NOW, most likely within seconds, because of the small volume of each blob, it freezes. How convenient.
Along with the "curse" are some important blessings. If water didn't do this, lakes would freeze from the bottom up. I think freezing would occur longer after the onset of cold temperatures than it does now, not until the earth below the lake was at a freezing temperature. But this is what would happen, the molecules nearer the surface would be cooled, they would sink lower because of increased density, and then freeze along the bottom of the lake. But probably in the big picture, the molecules near the surface would be cooled, start sinking, then decrease the temperature of the water below it. This would carry on until the whole lake was just about freezing, and then it would start to freeze from the bottom up. If the earth beneath was still warmer than 0 degrees, it might melt some of this ice, but the cooler water would stay nearer the bottom, eventually pulling the earth down with it. I think the end result would be many completely frozen lakes, many dead fish. 10 cups of water will freeze to 11 cups of ice. So before the entire lake is frozen, rivers and lakes would overflow. I'd imagine that many animals and people wouldn't survive or never would have settled in freezing areas, because of the lack of fish.
The reason lakes don't freeze through now is that the cooler water rises to the top, and I don't think the earth beneath gets all the way down to 0. I'm making most of this up, so if anyone has a different idea, or if I got something wrong, let me know. Oh yeah, there would also be no north pole, or anything but sea in the arctic. Which would mean a lot more water all around and a lot less land. And it IS possible for rivers to freeze over, so I'd imagine that it would be a lot easier for all rivers to freeze over. especially since the cold water settled into deeper pools could freeze much easier or the same as rivers now freeze along the edges in stiller areas. The ice would "grow" and probably eventually freeze the whole thing. One last point, the ice would take much longer to thaw in the spring, especially if it's true that the ground beneath is also being held below 0.
First of all, I am pretty confident that water is the only (or at least one of the few) liquids that expands upon getting colder. So water, in itself, is quite a prank. It doesn't start to expand until 4 degrees Celsius. In all that coldness, it acts normal, slowly shrinking until 4 degrees where it proudly exclaims, "HA! FOOLS!" as we watch, dumbfounded, nearly frozen, and on top of it all, absolutely pissed.
Second of all, it's used or occurs naturally in all of our drinks, and most of our foods. Put a can or bottle of any drink with less alcohol than wine in the freezer and what happens? It's ALMOST there, ALMOST frozen and at this point, God has decided, it would be a good time for a catastrophe. The container gives way and the nearly-freezing fluid explodes or drizzles or whatevers out and NOW, most likely within seconds, because of the small volume of each blob, it freezes. How convenient.
Along with the "curse" are some important blessings. If water didn't do this, lakes would freeze from the bottom up. I think freezing would occur longer after the onset of cold temperatures than it does now, not until the earth below the lake was at a freezing temperature. But this is what would happen, the molecules nearer the surface would be cooled, they would sink lower because of increased density, and then freeze along the bottom of the lake. But probably in the big picture, the molecules near the surface would be cooled, start sinking, then decrease the temperature of the water below it. This would carry on until the whole lake was just about freezing, and then it would start to freeze from the bottom up. If the earth beneath was still warmer than 0 degrees, it might melt some of this ice, but the cooler water would stay nearer the bottom, eventually pulling the earth down with it. I think the end result would be many completely frozen lakes, many dead fish. 10 cups of water will freeze to 11 cups of ice. So before the entire lake is frozen, rivers and lakes would overflow. I'd imagine that many animals and people wouldn't survive or never would have settled in freezing areas, because of the lack of fish.
The reason lakes don't freeze through now is that the cooler water rises to the top, and I don't think the earth beneath gets all the way down to 0. I'm making most of this up, so if anyone has a different idea, or if I got something wrong, let me know. Oh yeah, there would also be no north pole, or anything but sea in the arctic. Which would mean a lot more water all around and a lot less land. And it IS possible for rivers to freeze over, so I'd imagine that it would be a lot easier for all rivers to freeze over. especially since the cold water settled into deeper pools could freeze much easier or the same as rivers now freeze along the edges in stiller areas. The ice would "grow" and probably eventually freeze the whole thing. One last point, the ice would take much longer to thaw in the spring, especially if it's true that the ground beneath is also being held below 0.
posted by shawn @ 5:36 PM
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