ice 9

[nibot]

It turns out that ice IX does actually exist, as do ice I through XII, though thankfully it does not have the properties described by Vonnegut. Bree tells me that Kurt's brother Bernard was an atmospheric chemist who studied, among other things, cloud seeding—maybe that's where Kurt got the idea. [Above figure from the textbook Thermodynamics and an introduction to thermostatistics, second edition, by Herbert Callen.]

Comments

[unnes.livejournal.com]

Vonnegut himself was a chemistry major at Cornell, IIRC.

[lert.livejournal.com]

Should I read Cat's Cradle?

Ice Nine:

[caerglas.livejournal.com]

See the cat? See the cradle?

[schmatz.livejournal.com]

I like Ising on my cake! Too bad phase transitions don't show up in my work more often.

skips ice phase?

[kphiker.livejournal.com]

what's the deal when boiling water, tossed outside at about -50*, will turn immediately into steam and disappear?

well, no... but almost

[---------b.livejournal.com]

Ice I through Ice VIII exist. Ice IX was the next one in the chain, so that's what he used.