46 Nebraskaland • July 2025
MIXED BAG
By Eric Fowler
Years ago, after shelling out a few
bucks for another bag of ice while on
a fi shing trip in the Sandhills, a friend
of mine gave me some sage advice that
has stuck with me: "I can make that
stuff for next to nothing."
Since my bloodlines include some
frugal genes, I've been making block
ice in the freezer using various sizes
of plastic containers ever since, and
smashing it into bits with a hammer
when I need cubes.
I also have some nerd genes in me,
so I've often questioned the science
behind ice, coolers and keeping stuff
in them cold. There are plenty of tips
online, but are they fact or old wives'
tales? Having forgotten most of what I
learned about thermodynamics in high
school and college physics classes,
I asked an expert on the subject: Dr.
Christian Binek, a physics professor at
the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
Block or Cube?
You used to be able to buy blocks
wherever ice was sold, but I can't tell
you the last time I've seen it for sale. It
seems to last longer, but does it?
Indeed it does, Binek says, due to
the increased surface area of cubed ice
compared to a block weighing just as
much. There is a misconception about
cooling. It's not that cold goes into
something. Rather, it is that heat fl ows.
This fl ow of heat is called the current
entity, and the temperature diff erence
between what you are keeping cool
and the ice determines the magnitude
of the current.
"If you have smaller cubes of ice,
or crushed ice, then you signifi cantly
increase the surface area it can fl ow
through, and then the heat transport
is just more effi cient, or faster," Binek
says.
This is the type of science Binek
studies at the Voelte-Keegan
Nanoscience Research Center where
he works. They look at things on a
nanoscale, where the number of atoms
on the surface of a particle can be
greater than the atoms within it. Ice
melts quickly at that scale.
THE SCIENCE OF COOLERS
Homemade block ice can easily be made into "cubes" with a hammer. Just be sure to hold it in a gloved hand and wear eye
protection. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND
