Distilled Water Changes Icicle Shapes

With all the extreme wintery weather that we’re experiencing around the world, there are many beautiful things in nature to be enjoyed and admired. Snow blanketing the ground and icicles forming from ledges everywhere make peace and harmony seem to be everywhere.

Being something of an enthusiast of frozen water, icicles in particular, Stephen Morris and his team from the University of Toronto decided to grow some under different conditions, to see how their shapes would change. By dripping water from a slowly rotating nozzle into a refrigerated box, the effect of air motion, water purity, speed of dripping water and temperature could be easily monitored.

The results proved to be very interesting indeed; those created with distilled water turned out to be the smoothest, as impurities in the water provide sites where bulges can form. Surprisingly, when the air was still, the icicles were more likely to form multiple tips, rather than when the air was circulating.

If you’re a distilled water enthusiast, perhaps you’ve done great things with it, or maybe you know loads about icicles and would like to share your wisdom, please do get in touch and our team will be on hand to listen with interest.