Which disappears faster? a large ice cube or a large ice cube broken into two pieces? Why?

Question

Which disappears faster? a large ice cube or a large ice cube broken into two pieces? Why?

Answer 1

The melting rate is related to the heat transfer rate. The more heat that
enters the ice cube, the faster it melts. The heat transfer rate is related
to the temperature difference between the ice cube and the water, a heat
transfer coefficient (some constant value), and the surface area of the ice
cube. A big chunk of ice (lets let it be a 1 meter cube) weighs about a
ton, and has an area of 6 square meters. If we smash it up into little 1
cubic centimeter cubes, there are 1,000,000 of these cubes, each with an
area of 6 square centimeters, for a total area of 6,000,000 square
centimeters, or 100 square meters. Letting everything else be equal, you
would have 100 times the area for heat transfer, allowing you to melt 100
times faster.
As it turns out, the large and small ice cubes will each melt the same depth
in the same time. If the 1 meter ice cube melts down by 1 mm per side per
minute, then the 1 cm ice cubes would melt down by 1 mm per side per minute.
In 10 minutes (or 5, depending on how you count the melt rate), the 1 cm
cubes are gone. In 1000 minutes (or 500, again, same dependence) the 1
meter ice cube is gone. Again, we see the 100 factor.
I've left out a few details which can screw things up. You will notice that
the ice cube corners get more dull as the cube melts. This is because each
corner has relatively more surface area than the center of the flat sides,
and hence a faster heat transfer rate. Your cube will become more
spherical, which will expose each external volume of ice to the same heat
transfer area.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

The cube broken in half, assuming that the cube is held above the freezing point. The reason? The larger the surface area exposed to the above freezing temperature, the faster the heat penetrates and turns the cube to water.

Answer 3

Broken into pieces disappears faster; more surface area to absorb heat and melt (or sublimate into a gas).

This would hold true regardless of the temperature.

Break it into tiny pieces 1/100th of an inch square and it all would melt in a fraction of a second.

Answer 4

The one in pieces. Larger surface area.

Answer 5

more pieces = more surface area to absorb 'heat' (or warmer air) and melt. a large single piece has less surface area in contact with 'heat' so would take longer to melt...

Answer 6

what is the temperature is it outside? Is the icecube sitting on a hot surface? if it is relativly hot then the whole icecube would take longer to melt, but the two halfs would take less time because there is less frozen area to melt.

Answer 7

small