• Question: why is ice so cold

    Asked by swilks to Susana, Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam on 20 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by reaganbrien, 11ebourne.
    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Ice feels very cold to you because it is around 36 degrees Celsius below your body temperature, it is a fairly large difference.

      Ice is one of the solid structures of water and is crystalline! It is stabilised by a network of molecules forming bonds to each other and limiting their movements and vibrations.

    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Ice is cold compared to us because ice only exists at temperatures less than 0ºC.

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      It’s all about conductance. Your skin is hot and the ice is very cold so when you touch it the heat flows from your skin into the heat leaving you feeling cold.

      Conductance of heat is actually quite interesting. If you imagine getting out of bed in winter, if you have a tiled floor it will feel cold but a carpeted floor will feel warmer. Even if they were at the same temperature the tile would feel colder because it has a much higher conductance.

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