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Compressed air chambers inside the sugar cubes are
progressively exposed as the cube dissolves. As the air
escapes
the cube spins thus stirring itself.
"My coffee like it's full of piranha." Sounds like a line from a
Hunter S Thompson book or a spy's code phrase.
Could also work for ice
for your cocktails.
and if compressed air doesn't work, use something else,
perhaps chemical reactiony in nature, the basic idea being
the spinning/stirring thing.
Pop Rocks
http://www.pop-rocks.com/ As mentioned in an annotation. [Vernon, Dec 11 2013]
How to make this work
http://www.youtube....watch?v=2uMBbkSMppM [doctorremulac3, Dec 12 2013]
The Bird Men of Alka-Selzer
The_20Bird_20Men_20of_20Alka-Selzer mine can dance! [xenzag, Dec 12 2013]
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Annotation:
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This is possibly the best idea I have read here. |
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Aren't those "pop rock" candies basically sugar with
compressed gas in them? So this Idea is basically
about specially-shaped pop-rocks, to ensure they
spin as a result of the gas escaping. |
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I only said "possibly". And the "here" meant "on this
page". |
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Howevertheless, it is a damn fine idea. |
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It could also release buoys color-marked for calories or
perhaps coffee related miniature fauna. Also may function
as depth charges for annoying frappucino art. |
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//Aren't those "pop rock" candies basically sugar with
compressed gas in them?// |
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No, I think those are basically sugary Alka Seltzer. |
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//sugar weak. no hold air// |
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I don't know, grandma style hard candy that I've tried
to eat could probably restrain a small nuclear
explosion. Make it hard but easy to dissolve in water
using chemistry 'n stuff. |
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From wikipedia on Pop Rocks: |
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//The candy is made by mixing its ingredients and
heating them until they melt into a syrup, then
exposing the mixture to pressurized carbon
dioxide gas (about 600 pounds per square inch or
40 bar) and allowing it to cool. // |
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So yes, it is actually compressed gas. However
they have a short shelf life, and require a candy
rather than a pure sugar, which would greatly slow
down the dissolution time in coffee. |
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Sugar cubes dissolve well because they are a bunch of small sugar crystals that are partially dissolved then recrystallized together, making them very porous. If we can figure a way to add pop rocks to the mixture as it is solidifying without setting them off, and arrange the pop rocks in a spiral pattern in the sugar cubes, this might be possible. I assume this might involve a pressure chamber so they won't explode while the surface of the pop rocks is weakened while drying. One concern is that the water will flow through the pores of the sugar cube fairly rapidly and set off all the pop rocks at once. Then again if it is designed to spin for only a short time, say 1 or 2 seconds, that might not be an issue. I can't image that small volume of pop rocks storing enough energy to stir for very long anyway. |
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Aaannnd THERE you lost me. We want to spin a monastery using compressed gases? |
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" I only said "possibly". And the "here" meant "on this page". " |
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How about the addition of powderised sodium or potassium into the mix when pressing the sugar cubes? (here I'm presuming they're made by simply pressing crushed sugar into a cube shape). A very thin sugar coating on the outside would then make the cube "robust" enough to survive handling, but woudl rapidly dissolve in the hot beverage, exposing the Sodium. |
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The trick would be using enough, but not too much sodium. We'd also have to be sure that sodium doesn't pull the hydroxyl group from the sugar. In that it can be stored in alcohol (I beleive), this shouldn't be an issue. |
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Should look a bit line an energetic alka-seltzer. |
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I'm leaving the typos in the above, as a lesson to myself. |
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//We'd also have to be sure that sodium doesn't pull
the hydroxyl group from the sugar// |
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Yea, see? Science! I told you this would be easy. ;) |
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Metallic Lithium would work as well - your sugar cube would spin, the surface of your tea would have attractive flames dancing across it, and you'd get a healthy dose of Lithium with every cup of tea you drank. |
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.... or an unsettled stomach cure - see last link for prior creation using same principle. |
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