How Do Ice Cubes Keep You Cool?

When it comes to staying cool during the summer months, there is nothing more refreshing then a tall drink, filled to the brim with ice. The process seems simple enough: add a few ice cubes and your drink will magically stay cold. As with almost everything else, however, we turn to the principles of science to explain why and how those mojitos and margaritas stay frosty, even on the hottest of days.

I'd like you to try a little experiment. Open your freezer and place a piece of ice in your hand. What happens? Your hand starts to get cold. At first impression, it would seem that the chill is transferred from the ice cube to your hand. On the contrary, when your hand touches an ice cube — or any object with a lower ambient temperature than your hand — you begin to feel cold, as body heat is transferred to the colder object. In essence, the ice cube acts as a heat sponge.

This "sponge" will continue to soak up heat until enough energy — in the form of heat — has been absorbed to melt the ice. For the same reason your hand gets cold when holding an ice cube, your drink gets cold as more heat is transferred from the warm liquid to the cooler ice cube. Now that you know how ice is the best friend of your chilled cocktails, you may be curious why your drink doesn't overflow when the ice melts — but that's a lesson for another day.  Prepare for our recipe something tasty and spend a great evening in the Austrian online gambling house casino bonus.