This is ripped off from the exploding and evacuated ice cube ideas as another way to get a pointless task done in a manner requiring a lot more work.
A special two sided ice cube tray that has forms for two sides of a hollow ice cube shaped like a rocket. Fill with water and freeze. Fold it over putting the two sides together and close the tray, which is air tight and pump it with compressed air. Re-freeze it so the two sides of the rocket shaped ice cubes freeze together and seal the compressed air inside the resultant chambers within.
Drop them into drinks and as they melt, a thinner section of ice at the bottom melts first, breaching the compressed air chamber. The compressed air escapes such that the ice flys out of the drink, thus delighting the easily delighted and pissing everybody else off. "Hey! Them ice cubes's be all flyin’ out ma drink n such!"
What better way to say: "Hey everybody! Look at me! I'm an asshole!" A quantum leap beyond the fly in the ice cube trick.-- doctorremulac3, Aug 04 2005 True, but that could be said for all noble human endeavors, from writing poetry to ballet dancing to juggling chainsaws. :)-- doctorremulac3, Aug 06 2005 Pure genius. Someone's gotta try this to see if it works...and it's not gonna be me. Next thing we need is a rim around the glass to catch all the liquid flying out.-- goober, Aug 06 2005 Integrate colorful little paper parachutes for a safe landing.-- jutta, Aug 07 2005 The air chamber would need to be at the top of the rocket, but the opening at the bottom, to get the right orientation (unless you want the rocket to take the bottom of the glass out).-- Ling, Aug 08 2005 Correct. I figure the flight orientation fins would make the ice rocket bottom heavy for the correct orientation. You could also make them aerodynamically (hydrodynamically at first?) unstable so they would zing around all over the place unpredictably.
You could also have the air release "nozzle" off center so they just spin around wildly but stay in the drink. Put them in coctails with an "atomic" theme or something. Or just have one big one that spins like a pinweel and mixes the drink after being dropped in. Call the drink the cyclone or tornado or whatever.
Who would have thought that getting drunk could be made any more fun?-- doctorremulac3, Aug 08 2005 Cool. (sorry) You could have a non-compressed air bubble near the nose of the rocket to keep it vertical until launch.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 08 2005 The whole ice rocket is pretty heavy and wants some PSI to perform properly, maybe too much for the ice to hold. What if you make the 'melty' part at the top of a vertically-floating stout cylinder of ice, so that when the hatch at the top melted any manner of semi-solid or fluid could be launched from the 'barrel' under pressure? A "Rocket Shot" for a Margarita could be more alcohol (Grand Marnier)? Or a 'prize' for the obnoxious customer (something staining or just noxious)? I'd like to make a Black Russian with 1/2 & 1/2 as the encapsulated Rocket Shot and turn it into a White Russian. Tequila Sunrise turns into Tequila Sunset? Great Idea!-- minoradjustments, May 09 2022 //What better way to say: "Hey everybody! Look at me! I'm an asshole!" //
Get a hummer?
//I figure the flight orientation fins would make the ice rocket bottom heavy//
At that size/weight ratio I don't think aerodynamics gets into it enough to matter.-- Voice, May 09 2022 //Get a hummer?//
LOL!
Probably right. These things would just fly every which way explody style.
This brings back memories, it was this idea that led me to come up with the self stirring sugar cubes that Max thought I should have brought to market. Still could, but can't patent it now.
As far as these, rather than having rockets I could just have them spin like self stirring sugar cubes, only because the compressed air escapes when the thinner part melts. Kind of like those contra- rotating fireworks. Less eye damage and you'd have a drink that would just turn into a maelstrom every few minutes.
Have then staggered with progressively thicker plug portions so one goes off every minute or so. It would be like having a small live animal in your drink.
Why? Leave that to the guys in marketing.-- doctorremulac3, May 09 2022 What about a lump of dry ice inside instead? Once the "thin bit" (of water ice) melts, the dry ice sublimes. Even if you can't get enough thrust to launch the iceblock, it would at least look cool, adding heaps of extra bubbliness.-- neutrinos_shadow, May 09 2022 Hey, I like that. Lots easier to do as well.
Although might not be a good thing to put in cocktails. Pretty sure dry ice isn't something you want to put in your mouth.
But just to do the spinning thing could work.-- doctorremulac3, May 09 2022 Hey Neut? I think you've got something there. Okay, it's not exactly something you'd want people to put in their mouth but for a science class just to show the properties of dry ice vs ice? This would be very entertaining.
The science teacher puts "very special ice cubes" in the water and suddenly they all start shooting around? Maybe attach them like a pinwheel sort of deal so they all spin in the same direction.
Maybe it's okay to do something just because it looks cool and gets students interested?-- doctorremulac3, May 09 2022 Dry ice is denser than water & water ice is LESS dense, so the buoyancy of the rocket-block will vary in interesting ways as both parts heat up. Dry ice is -80 deg, so it would be: 1: Carve dry ice into required shape (I don't think a mold would work) 2: Suspend inside water mold 3: Fill mold with water, put back in -80 freezer Might need to be a 2-step water molding procedure, to get the dry ice fully enclosed. (I don't have easy access to dry ice, or a -80 freezer...)-- neutrinos_shadow, May 10 2022 Also, once perfected: throw them into the local swimming pool...-- neutrinos_shadow, May 10 2022 I kind of want to actually try this.-- doctorremulac3, May 10 2022 It's all fun and games until you put someone's eye out.-- Voice, May 10 2022 //It's all fun and games until you put someone's eye out.//
I don't see why the fun and games has to stop at that point.-- pocmloc, May 10 2022 //It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye//
Then it's just a game. Find the eye.-- not_only_but_also, May 10 2022 LOL!
Has somebody come out with a kid's game called "You'll Put An Eye Out!" yet?-- doctorremulac3, May 10 2022 Maybe a sodium pellet embedded in the ice cube?-- pocmloc, May 10 2022 Well we're definitely getting away from novelty cocktail ice cubes now.-- doctorremulac3, May 10 2022 Will they make a farting sound as they fly around the room?-- UnaBubba, May 11 2022 random, halfbakery