Water’s High-Pressure Ice Phases: Freezing in Unbreakable Containers
Clip title: What Happens When You Freeze Water in a Container So Strong It Can’t Expand? Author / channel: Fact Quickie URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcE9ZidhB6o
Summary
The video delves into the surprising complexity of frozen water, revealing that “ice” is not a singular substance but encompasses at least 15 distinct solid phases, each with unique densities and internal structures. The journey begins with a common classroom demonstration where water, upon freezing and expanding, can crack a steel container. This leads to the central question: what happens if water is frozen within a container so strong it cannot break? The answer is that the water would still turn to ice, but it would form a different type of ice, distinct from the common hexagonal ice we typically encounter.
The various forms of ice, from hexagonal (common ice) to cubic ice (at lower temperatures), and then sequentially up to Ice 15, are created by manipulating specific combinations of extreme pressure and temperature. Scientists, notably a research team at Oxford University’s Chemistry Department, have been instrumental in discovering and documenting these different phases. For example, they were the first to create Ice 12, Ice 14, and Ice 15, with the latter requiring temperatures as low as -143°C and pressures 10,000 times greater than Earth’s atmosphere. Intriguingly, Ice 15 was found to be anti-ferroelectric, meaning it cannot hold an electrical charge. These discoveries highlight the advanced techniques required, sometimes involving chemical agents like hydrochloric acid, to achieve the precise conditions for each ice form.
The incredible force exerted by freezing water, the initial premise of the video, is attributed to a unique property of water: it is less dense as a solid than as a liquid. As water freezes, its molecules arrange into a rigid hexagonal structure, creating small but significant gaps that cause it to expand. Water reaches its maximum density at 4°C, expanding both when heated above this point and when cooled below it. Historical attempts to contain this force underscore its power; Major Edward Williams in the late 18th century repeatedly failed to contain freezing water in artillery shells and even robust cannons, which either had their plugs launched hundreds of feet or split entirely.
Ultimately, the video quantifies this immense force, noting that experiments have shown it can clock in at around 27,720 pounds, or 43,511.31 pounds per square inch (PSI) at the point where regular ice would transform into Ice II under pressure. Therefore, if water were frozen in a container strong enough to withstand its expansion, it wouldn’t remain liquid but would transition into a high-pressure ice polymorph, like Ice II, demonstrating water’s fundamental ability to freeze while adapting its internal structure to the surrounding pressure.
Video Description & Links
Description
Some readers may recall a science class in which an excitable teacher walked to the front of the class to show off a small, cracked steel container, seemingly damaged by an incredibly powerful, but tiny force; only for said teacher to reveal that the damage had been done by nothing more than water. However, what would happen if you put the water in a container it couldn’t break out of and then froze it?
Tags
facts, education, entertainment, edutainment, trivia, simon whistler, science, physics
Related Concepts
- high-pressure ice phases
- water density anomaly
- phase diagram — Wikipedia
- crystalline structure — Wikipedia
- thermodynamics — Wikipedia
- Ice polymorphs
- Ice II — Wikipedia
- Ice 15 — Wikipedia
- anti-ferroelectricity — Wikipedia
- hexagonal crystalline structure
- extreme pressure — Wikipedia
Related Entities
- Fact Quickie
- Oxford University — Wikipedia