Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by cromwellian 2669 days ago
I make clear ice at home with those specialized insulated/rubberized coolers. The distilled part I mentioned is in relation to impurities and that glacial ice was the most “pure”. Is that really true? Can’t glacial ice have trapped impurities and gasses?

I guess what I’m getting at is, the claim that glacial ice was needed, what particular property of glacial ice can’t be replicated by careful ice making?

2 comments

Glacial ice is just compacted snow so you're going to have some amount of other crap in it (hence why we use ice cores to learn about the atmosphere at the time of their formation). Glacial ice that includes whatever year some big volcano went bang is probably not going to make a very good lens.

I suspect that lab ice made with the express intention of being clean would be far cleaner.

The glacial ice is pure artistry, not something well though out. This is shown by the fact he didn't consider his iceball maker wouldn't work as fast in cold conditions.