I noticed that ice becomes stickier the colder it gets. I am reminded of the fool who stuck his tongue to a cold galvanized steel pole and got stuck to it. I am guessing that the pole was so cold that the moisture on his tongue instantly became ice. Why does ice have this property?
35012
since the Christmas season is here, I would like to ask a question about the movie, "A Christmas Story." In one of the subplots of the movie, Ralphie's friends were betting each other that their tongue would stick to to a frozen pole. Finally, the kid did it and it stuck to the pole.   Why does this happen? I believe that there is a physics explanation for this.
92882
If you have a glass of water, say, three quarters full and you pour it at an angle of say, $45^{\circ}$ with respect to the the table, the water comes out of the glass and goes directly down towards the floor.  However, when the glass is more full, or even three quarters full and the 'angle of pouring' is far less with respect the table, when the water comes out of the glass, rather than going straight down it kind of stays stuck to the glass and travels down the outside of it.  Why does this happen? (I'm sure many of you have observed it yourself by accident and ended up making a mess).
103345
There exists this famous idea that if all floating icebergs melt, water level will stay the same (because the water replaced by ice is the volume of the melted ice). Now,   Is this always so, if you allow more exotic forms of ice (take e.g. ice XII with density 1.29) ? Is this always so on/in earth ?   EDIT:  I was looking a possibility that you would have water as a liquid that contains pieces of water as a solid. No land is assumed to exist here. "Ice" is always floating or sunken(if possible).  To reformulate, can Ice be sunken in water in any circumstance (pressure, temperature)?  EDIT 2:  Wikipedia: "Ice VII has a density of about 1.65 g cm-3 (at 2.5 GPa and 25°C)".   And water as an incompressible liquid has a density of 1 g cm-3. This means that ice VII is at the bottom of the "lake" and will expand when it melts. Is this true? And are there environments in earth where this (or similar) can happen?
77048
Is  a ?  If not, what is it then?  If yes why, don't we teach kids this basic example?    UPDATE: I probably meant a regular commonplace fire of the usual temperature. That should simplify the answer.
95736
The answers to  explain that ice is less dense than water because it has a "crystal structure", but they dont explain what exactly that is and why this happens, also I saw  from another site stating that not all ice is less dense than water.  What is the "crystal structure" that ice has? Why is ice structured that way? Can ice be more dense than water, and if yes, how and when?
35233
How come mineral oil is a better lubricant than water, even though water has a lower viscosity?    When two surfaces slide over each other with a gap filled with a fluid, the different layers of the fluid are dragged at different speeds. The very top layer touching the top metal surface will have the same speed as the surface itself, while the bottommost layer is stationary. The speed in the layers between is distributed linearly and there exist friction forces between those layers that slow the movement. Those frictional forces should be reduces however, if a fluid with a lower viscosity is chosen.   How come this is not so?   Does it have to do with water's polarity, so that it sticks to surfaces in a different way than oil?
1711
When I was in high school, my teacher did an experiment to show the power of atmospheric pressure.  Experiment: Prepare a glass bottle, fill with water, put a glass plate on the bottle, make sure there is no air in the bottle, just water. Hold the glass bottle and plate, and invert them. Slowly, release the hand which hold the plate. Because the atmospheric pressure, the glass plate will not fall down.    Question 1: As we know, if we didn't put water into the glass bottle, just air in the glass bottle the glass plate will fall down. So, If we use other liquid instead of water, this liquid has smaller density than water, like alcohol, the plate will not fall down. But, if we continue to chose the smaller density liquid until the liquid has density like air the plate will fall down. So, if there is a threshold density of liquid make the plate between falling  down and not falling down?  Question 2: If we put the bottle and plate into water slowly, when the plate and part of bottle are in the water but part of the bottle still above the water, will the plate fall down?  Question 3: Continuing question 2, when both bottle and plate are in the water I know the plate will fall down. So, how does the pressure of water and atmosphere change?  Is there a good description of this phenomena?  Why does the trick continue to work with lower density fluids and why does placing the plate in the water cause it to fall?
55786
When you have a drink with an ice cube and twirl the glass, the liquid itself seems to twirl but the ice cube stays roughly in the same place. Why is this?
70282
When I candy-coat apples and let them sit out, the candy coating becomes sticky. I live in the Southern U.S., so humidity is usually pretty high, but other people in my area make them as well.
77972
So I learned that the bar magnet makes a magnetic field and the field lines have a certain shape which kinda resembles 2 semi-ovals.  And if we pass current through a conductor then it makes a  magnetic fields and the field lines are in the form of concentric circles around the conductor.  My question is- why? Why do magnetic field lines take the shape that they take? There must be a reason behind it. Why aren't the field lines of a normal bar magnet shaped like the field lines of a conductor carrying electricity? And vice-versa?   Please explain it to me..i know that it delves very deep into the fundamentals of the working of science but still...please tell me the reason if anyone knows it
28588
Why there is always cold at high altitudes. e.g. at peak of mountains. Also as we go high from sea level, temperature starts decreasing. Why is it?
29502
When I put a finger on a straw with water in it, it wouldn't fall out of this straw. But is there maximum size (length and diameter) of this straw/pipe to get this effect and what causes this limit?
90446
When a polished piece of metal (or steel in particular) is heated to incandescence, how do its reflective properties change?  Given a mirror-like surface, would the object temporarily cease to act like a mirror at a certain temperature?  Would the specular reflection of light turn into diffuse reflection; in other words, would the surface temporarily become matte/dull?  I am not asking about permanent changes to the object such as melting, but rather can there be a temporary change in the reflectivity only while the the object is hot, that disappears when the object is cooled down?  Background of the question: I have a laser scanner that usually has trouble scanning shiny surfaces with high specular/ low diffuse reflectivity; and it seems to work a lot better for hot steel pieces than for cold ones. Glowing steel also looks less shiny to me than cold steel, but of course that is hard to tell with all the glowing
54927
If I have a container that is full of water and I attempt to freeze the water by freezing the container, what would happen if the container is strong enough to prevent the water expansion? Could the water be in liquid state even though it is at or below freezing point?  This is probably a daft question but its something that's been bugging me.
91224
I sometimes hear stories where people compare their feelings in winter in different places in the world.  It goes like     in city X the temperature was the same as in city Y, but the humidity made me feel much colder...   or      oh well, -20°C would be cold, but the humidity was low, so it felt OK   so it implies that humidity somehow makes it feel colder. I am talking about temperatures below freezing (-30...0°C).  Does this have any physical explanation, or is it some sort of ?
114410
A magnet loses its magnetic properties when subjected to heat, the Earth's core is also hot but still it has magnetic properties, Why?
8999
I read that the soda's temperature allows it to contain its $\text{CO}_2$: colder means it can retain its bubbles better.  So, why does soda fizz when it meets ice?  If anything, because the soda is made colder, it should retain its gas better, as per above. The ice is taking away energy from the soda, thus freezing. Won't heating, not freezing, encourage the gas to escape, or is it not an energy matter?