Ice is probably one of the things that people are least concerned about, till at least there is none to put in your warm drink on a hot day. Contrary to what people believe ice really isn’t all that boring, here are some interesting facts to get you believing.

Fact no 1: Ice harvesting was once one of the most popular businesses; it gained popularity at the turn of the century when the demand for ice grew to increasing heights. This process was a very labour intensive one, without the use of modern tools, it was very hard to complete and took a lot of man power. Ice was then transported either with the help of a river or by mechanical means to ice houses.

Fact no 2: Regular ice is basically frozen water where as on the other hand dry ice is basically frozen carbon dioxide. Frozen carbon dioxide is a very cold gas, the temperature of this gas usually goes below -78 degrees Celsius.  Unlike regular ice, dry ice does not melt from a solid to liquid state, it directly changes from a solid to vapour form. Such a change is known as sublimation.

Fact no 3: Ice has had a dominant portion of the world’s land space since the beginning of time. It currently covers about 10% of the entire Earth’s land area and expands to almost 7% of the oceans. Though in recent years because of global warming the percentage of ice has declined, it still covers a dominant area of the Earth’s surface.

Fact no 4: Water exhibits some very interesting properties as it moves from a liquid to solid state, contrary to what other compounds do water actually expands on moving from liquid to solid form. This is exactly why ice is denser than water and thus floats on it. This is also the reason behind the phenomenon of exploding bottles in freezing cold.

Fact no 5: Ice when looked at properly seems very cloudy in appearance. This cloudiness is basically because of the air bubbles that get trapped in the water as it cools and freezes over. If you want clear ice bubbles the water that you started off with must be warm or hot. Warmer water has lower content of dissolved air and thus bubbles, which will consequently result in clearer ice production.

Fact no 6: The water at the bottom of the oceans is usually at -4 degrees Celsius. Yes, it is still in its liquid form. This brings one question to mind, why water is still in its liquid state when its at below freezing temperatures. The answer is simple, for water to freeze it needs to expand, but at the bottom of the ocean, due to the tremendous pressure from above this water cannot expand and thus form ice.

Fact no 7: Dry ice is very different than regular frozen ice in a lot of aspects, dry ice usually sinks when thrown in water, it has a specific gravity of 1.5. If you drop it in water it will sink, and it will do so gloriously, with layers of bubbles and froth outpouring from the seams.

Fact no 8: There is ice on comets, but just like every thing else in the outer space, that ice is nothing like regular ice. It is different in its properties and structure.

Fact no 9: Sea ice plays a huge part in regulating the temperature of the world. A reduction in sea ice can have catastrophic results.

Fact no 10: Algae can grow within the ice, or rather the cracks within the ice and provide food to other insects.