the refrigerator that was in my apartment is weird. I have in there 2 gallons of milk, 1 gallon of OJ, 1 gallon of Ice tea... and alot of cans of coke. Now all the milk and juice/tea are in the plastic milk jugs, but the weird thing is, my tea and juice FREEZES while my milk stays fine. Why does my tea and OJ freeze? I turn up my temp is the fridge a little but it doesnt help. That just defies the laws of science. It's probably 36 or 37 degrees, but yet, my tea and OJ turn into a big gallon of ice... anyone know why?
yeah, on a side note. I think there is something in our freezer that is making our ice smell and taste like garlic, but I am not sure. WOuld that be the most likely colprit?
Well the OJ and the Tea have a higher concentration of water so they are going to freeze a lot easier than the milk does. Much like alcohol can be put in the freezer and it won't freeze, becuase there is no water in it. That's probably why those are freezing. I guess just turn down the temp a bit.
That's pretty much it. Some of you may have heard of "freezing point depression" - in other words, having something dissolved in a liquid lowers its freezing point. The solutes (dissolved things) that work best are non-electrolytes (in other words, not ionic, like salt). OJ, tea, and milk are all aqueous (water-based) solutions. The concentration of non-ionic solutes is probably greater in the milk than in the other two. Strictly, milk is not even a true "solution", but a suspension. Note that you can't see through it. The molecules of milk protein and fats (not present in skim milk, but you still have the protein) don't separate entirely in water, but clump together. It's not enough for the milk drinker to notice as "solid particles" or anything. Anyway, having so much suspended material may be driving the freezing point down. It shouldn't technically be happening above 32 degrees, regardless, but there may be hot and cold spots in your refrigerator. It's probably not entirely even throughout. ...more stuff you probably never cared to know...
I think we need to get together and i will go ahead and write the lamens way of saying it and you put the harcore scientific way on the next page....somewhat of a science for clutchfans dummies book =)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I understood what Isabel wrote perfectly Although I preferred to forget the many chapters I read on such topics..
FYI, The freezing temperature of natural milk varies normally, with a mean of –0.545 degrees Celsius and a standard deviation of 0.008, so this is probably not the case. (Unless it's buttermilk or something). I don't know how the fridge is arranged, but most fridge/freezer combos have a single cooling unit and there is an effort made to transfer a portion of the colder air from the freezer part to the not so cold refrigirator part. You end up with problems where the air doesn't get pushed into the fridge correctly, perhaps if something is blocking the vents. In this case, the cold gets transfered disproportionately to whatever is blocking the air. Ice, also, can cause additional problems in this regard, as can old fans that aren't working as they should. You also end up with issues regarding the appropriate level of humidity in the respective units, and other issues.
