OK - No regular episode, just a bonus one. But the season of Misrule is just going to do that to us here in the 18th Century. It's kindof a chemistry class - but worry not - no tests and no homework.
This feels like a timely episode for those of us in the snow belt, since it helps you understand why salting the sidewalk prevents ice. But mainly I take the long way - through fire and dynamite - to explain why you make ice from water by causing already frozen ice to melt using salt.
Chemical bonds are interesting little things, and the phase changes of matter are strange places where energy exchange can cause things to happen that don't make sense at the human scale.
Oh - and snowflakes have six sides becase of the bent shape of water molecules - and the fact that they have a negative middle and positive ends.
All sorts of tiny trivia that will make the mundane ice - water - steam cycle seem interesting and possibly dangerous. Or at least inspire you to use hotpads in the kitchen.
As always - you can catch the Dinosaur Neil Episode of the The Tick here:
"Don't eat in the Lab or you might turn into a Dinosaur!" References - The Tick v. Dinosaur Neil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8HxakmkWU
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
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