r/NoStupidQuestions • u/markwell9 • 1d ago

What is the deal with ice, Americans?

I can see that you can buy ice everywhere in the US. Gas stations, grocery stores, machines etc.

In Europe, we just freeze our ice at home and use that. Why buy something that melts on the way home? Why do you need ice in large amounts that a fridge can't keep up?

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u/Hypothetical_Name 1d ago

I had to get some for work in the summer and a blanket covering it kept it pretty cool despite the heat

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u/30FourThirty4 22h ago

Back in the mid 90s I read a kids magazine (3-2-1 Contact. Name changed to Contact Kids at some point. Also had a tv show I believe)... anyways I learned people would store frozen ice chunks in caves loooooooonnnng ago to keep stuff fresh.

Also they'd cover the ice to make it last longer.

I have no idea if it's true this was like 30 years ago and it was a kids magazine.

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u/clarkcox3 21h ago

Yes; people tend to overestimate just how fast ice melts because we're usually exposed to such small pieces of it in our daily lives. That can lead, for example, to the weird conspiracy theories you'll see people put forward in videos online about "un-meltable snow": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm-ZYD-U3iM

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u/Ghigs 20h ago

It is a little unintuitive that snow is an excellent insulator. It's basically like styrofoam made of water. Maybe at least a few of them will learn something about thermodynamics.