Idea TitleMagic: Ice Show to Bingsu (Shaved Ice)
Submission DivisionJR (13 - 17 years)
AbstractBy Elizabeth Kim, Joanna Peng, Priscilla Wang and Julia Wang
Our idea, "Magic: Ice Show to Bingsu (Shaved Ice)," capitalizes on the natural phenomenon of condensation in extremely cold temperatures to create Bingsu, a Korean shaved ice dessert, in the harsh Alaskan winter.
When boiling water is tossed (or poured) in extreme cold, most liquid turns into a white cloud that dissipates into the air. The extreme temperature differences between the liquid and environment, specifically with boiling water and the frigid winter air, show a rather “unexpected” phenomenon: condensation. Rather than the boiling water evaporating quickly, the vapor from the boiling water condenses into tiny droplets of water in the air, creating the “cloud” that we see.
With this phenomenon in mind, our goal is to utilize the harsh Alaskan winter and the science of condensation in cold weather to form ice, which would turn into bingsu, a Korean shaved ice dessert. We used boiling water and an aluminum tray to capture the ice, although we eventually switched to using a tall metallic pot and a funnel with a holder instead. We trickled boiling water through a funnel into a pot so that after condensation, the water vapor would cool and create particles of ice around the pot’s sides. Once scraped from the sides of the pot, the collected ice particles were like the shaved ice we expected. On a larger scale, we can generate enough to make bingsu.