3144: Phase Changes - Revision history

TheErgster: Removed Incomplete explanation as it gave no actual reason for explanation missing and the explanation was complete

2025-11-13T15:31:08Z

Removed Incomplete explanation as it gave no actual reason for explanation missing and the explanation was complete

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

2025-09-25T08:14:49Z

‎Explanation

DKMell: multiverse

2025-09-22T14:20:56Z

multiverse

2001:4C4D:12CC:1500:96:FBF1:D85B:75B1: /* Explanation */

2025-09-21T12:20:10Z

‎Explanation

2001:4C4D:12CC:1500:96:FBF1:D85B:75B1: /* Explanation */

2025-09-21T12:19:27Z

‎Explanation

2A00:F29:1025:F1AD:9D63:1F52:CB54:E17B: /* Transcript */ added a missing s

2025-09-21T10:07:41Z

‎Transcript: added a missing s

92.17.62.87: I'm restoring this (that was variously removed, replaced and otherwise changed). The comic is showing something fairly technical that happens, and "making it less technical" would help far less in actualy explaining what a reader is being shown.

2025-09-20T22:53:15Z

I'm restoring this (that was variously removed, replaced and otherwise changed). The comic is showing something fairly technical that happens, and "making it less technical" would help far less in actualy explaining what a reader is being shown.

Mathmaster: /* Explanation */

2025-09-20T21:25:59Z

‎Explanation

Mathmaster at 21:24, 20 September 2025

2025-09-20T21:24:47Z

Mathmaster at 21:24, 20 September 2025

2025-09-20T21:24:15Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:31, 13 November 2025
Line 10:		Line 10:

	==Explanation==		==Explanation==
−	~~{{incomplete\|This page was created in a Minecraft Ice Spikes Biome. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}~~

	This comic illustrates the difference between the simplified idealised version of science that is often taught in the classroom, and the much weirder, more unexpected and complicated phenomena that can happen in reality.		This comic illustrates the difference between the simplified idealised version of science that is often taught in the classroom, and the much weirder, more unexpected and complicated phenomena that can happen in reality.

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 When remarking about the ice spike in the right panel, Blondie says that the water is "trying to give us a present." This may come from the fact that ice spikes are generally diagonally extended, as dictated by the initial dominant plane of ice-crystallization, making them look as if they are reaching out towards someone or something. It may also reference the fact that many people would experience surprised delight at finding such an odd formation.
-The title text mocks people who look at things that remain gaps in scientific knowledge like free will and consciousness and try to assign deeper meaning to them them through fuzzy ideas like quantum uncertainty (e.g., {{w|Roger Penrose}}'s theory of {{w|orchestrated objective reduction}}) or infinite cosmologies (e.g., {{w|Multiverse#Anthropic_principle|multiverse hypotheses with the anthropic principle}}), when phenomena like ice spikes show that even in simple systems, emergent properties can cause unexpected results. This suggests that consciousness is also an emergent property of a simpler system, and not something that relies on some "magical" secret sauce like quantum uncertainty or infinite cosmologies.
+The title text mocks people who look at things that remain gaps in scientific knowledge, like free will and consciousness, and try to assign deeper meaning to them them through fuzzy ideas like quantum uncertainty (e.g. {{w|Roger Penrose}}'s theory of {{w|orchestrated objective reduction}}) or infinite cosmologies (e.g. {{w|Multiverse#Anthropic_principle|multiverse hypotheses with the anthropic principle}}), when phenomena like ice spikes show that even in simple systems, emergent properties can cause unexpected results. This suggests that consciousness is also an emergent property of a simpler system, and not something that relies on some "magical" secret sauce like quantum uncertainty or infinite cosmologies.
 Ice spikes were also referenced in the title text of [[3025: Phase Change]].

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In the first panel, [[Blondie]] is teaching the textbook version of the freezing of water, which is that it changes from a liquid to a solid at exactly 0°C. The expectation might be that the next panel will explain that it's rather more complicated than that, due to factors such as impurities and mixing of ice and liquid water, which mean that both solid and liquid water, or a mix of the two, can exist at temperatures above and below 0°C.
-Instead, it illustrates a much more surprising effect — that of {{w|ice spike}}s. Normally, water freezes uniformly when still, and creates a relatively smooth, flat surface. However, very occasionally, all but a small portion of the surface freezes. Because water expands by ~9% as it freezes, and the water below the surface only has this hole to expand through, the liquid water seeps out through the hole as it expands, freezes at the edges, the remaining water seeps out of this extension to the hole and so on until there is no more water capable of seeping past the freezing. This creates shapes such as spikes, where the rate of seepage is marginally less than the ability to disperse over the advancing ice-'tunnel', or inverted pyramids, where the rate slightly exceeds the ability to be retained. Cross-sectionally, they tend to have six-fold symmetry, for the same reasons as snowflake nucleation does. (That ''both'' structures are observed emerging from the single freezing body of water would make the comic's example somewhat counterintuitive, but we are already dealing with an example where two separate seepage holes must have developed without either losing their ability to extend due to the other's possibly preferential release of water.)
+Instead, it illustrates a much more surprising effect — that of {{w|ice spike}}s. Normally, water freezes uniformly when still, and creates a relatively smooth, flat surface. However, very occasionally, all but a small portion of the surface freezes. Because water expands by ~9% as it freezes, and the water below the surface has only this hole to expand through, the liquid water seeps out through the hole as it expands, freezes at the edges, the remaining water seeps out of this extension to the hole, and so on until there is no more water capable of seeping past the freezing. This creates shapes such as spikes, where the rate of seepage is marginally less than the ability to disperse over the advancing ice-'tunnel', or inverted pyramids, where the rate slightly exceeds the ability to be retained. Cross-sectionally, they tend to have six-fold symmetry, for the same reasons as snowflake nucleation does. (That ''both'' structures are observed emerging from the single freezing body of water would make the comic's example somewhat counterintuitive, but we are already dealing with an example where two separate seepage holes must have developed without either losing their ability to extend due to the other's possibly preferential release of water.)
-When remarking about the ice spike in the right panel, Blondie says that the water is "trying to give us a present." This may come from the fact that ice spikes are generally diagonally extended, as dictated by the initial dominant plane of ice-crystalisation, making them look as if they are reaching out towards someone or something. It may also reference the fact that many people would experience surprised delight at finding such an odd formation.
+When remarking about the ice spike in the right panel, Blondie says that the water is "trying to give us a present." This may come from the fact that ice spikes are generally diagonally extended, as dictated by the initial dominant plane of ice-crystallization, making them look as if they are reaching out towards someone or something. It may also reference the fact that many people would experience surprised delight at finding such an odd formation.
-The title text mocks people who look at things that remain gaps in scientific knowledge like free will and consciousness and try to assign deeper meaning to them them through fuzzy ideas like quantum uncertainty ({{w|Roger Penrose}}'s theory of {{w|Orchestrated objective reduction}}) or infinite cosmologies when phenomena like ice spikes show that even in simple systems, emergent properties can cause unexpected results. This suggests that consciousness is also an emergent property of a simpler system, and not something that relies on some "magical" secret sauce like quantum uncertainty or infinite cosmologies.
+The title text mocks people who look at things that remain gaps in scientific knowledge like free will and consciousness and try to assign deeper meaning to them them through fuzzy ideas like quantum uncertainty (e.g., {{w|Roger Penrose}}'s theory of {{w|orchestrated objective reduction}}) or infinite cosmologies (e.g., {{w|Multiverse#Anthropic_principle|multiverse hypotheses with the anthropic principle}}), when phenomena like ice spikes show that even in simple systems, emergent properties can cause unexpected results. This suggests that consciousness is also an emergent property of a simpler system, and not something that relies on some "magical" secret sauce like quantum uncertainty or infinite cosmologies.
 Ice spikes were also referenced in the title text of [[3025: Phase Change]].

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 When remarking about the ice spike in the right panel, Blondie says that the water is "trying to give us a present." This may come from the fact that ice spikes are generally diagonally extended, as dictated by the initial dominant plane of ice-crystalisation, making them look as if they are reaching out towards someone or something. It may also reference the fact that many people would experience surprised delight at finding such an odd formation.
-The title text mocks people who look at things that remain gaps in scientific knowledge like free will and consciousness and try to assign deeper meaning to them them through fuzzy ideas like quantum uncertainty ({{w|Roger Penroses}}'s theory of {{w|Orchestrated objective reduction}}) or infinite cosmologies when phenomena like ice spikes show that even in simple systems, emergent properties can cause unexpected results. This suggests that consciousness is also an emergent property of a simpler system, and not something that relies on some "magical" secret sauce like quantum uncertainty or infinite cosmologies.
+The title text mocks people who look at things that remain gaps in scientific knowledge like free will and consciousness and try to assign deeper meaning to them them through fuzzy ideas like quantum uncertainty ({{w|Roger Penrose}}'s theory of {{w|Orchestrated objective reduction}}) or infinite cosmologies when phenomena like ice spikes show that even in simple systems, emergent properties can cause unexpected results. This suggests that consciousness is also an emergent property of a simpler system, and not something that relies on some "magical" secret sauce like quantum uncertainty or infinite cosmologies.
 Ice spikes were also referenced in the title text of [[3025: Phase Change]].

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Instead, it illustrates a much more surprising effect — that of {{w|ice spike}}s. Normally, water freezes uniformly when still, and creates a relatively smooth, flat surface. However, very occasionally, all but a small portion of the surface freezes. Because water expands by ~9% as it freezes, and the water below the surface only has this hole to expand through, the liquid water seeps out through the hole as it expands, freezes at the edges, the remaining water seeps out of this extension to the hole and so on until there is no more water capable of seeping past the freezing. This creates shapes such as spikes, where the rate of seepage is marginally less than the ability to disperse over the advancing ice-'tunnel', or inverted pyramids, where the rate slightly exceeds the ability to be retained. Cross-sectionally, they tend to have six-fold symmetry, for the same reasons as snowflake nucleation does. (That ''both'' structures are observed emerging from the single freezing body of water would make the comic's example somewhat counterintuitive, but we are already dealing with an example where two separate seepage holes must have developed without either losing their ability to extend due to the other's possibly preferential release of water.)
-When remarking about the ice spike in the right panel, Blondie says that the water is "trying to give us a present." This may come from the fact that ice spikes are generally diagonally extended, as dictacted by the initial dominant plane of ice-crystalisation, making them look as if they are reaching out towards someone or something. It may also reference the fact that many people would experience surprised delight at finding such an odd formation.
+When remarking about the ice spike in the right panel, Blondie says that the water is "trying to give us a present." This may come from the fact that ice spikes are generally diagonally extended, as dictated by the initial dominant plane of ice-crystalisation, making them look as if they are reaching out towards someone or something. It may also reference the fact that many people would experience surprised delight at finding such an odd formation.
 The title text mocks people who look at things that remain gaps in scientific knowledge like free will and consciousness and try to assign deeper meaning to them them through fuzzy ideas like quantum uncertainty ({{w|Roger Penroses}}'s theory of {{w|Orchestrated objective reduction}}) or infinite cosmologies when phenomena like ice spikes show that even in simple systems, emergent properties can cause unexpected results. This suggests that consciousness is also an emergent property of a simpler system, and not something that relies on some "magical" secret sauce like quantum uncertainty or infinite cosmologies.

@@ Line 32: / Line 32: @@
 :Header: Phase change in practice
 :Blondie: When water freezes, it sometimes sends out long weird spikes.
-:Blondie: Physics tell us the water is "trying to give us a present."
+:Blondie: Physics tells us the water is "trying to give us a present."
 {{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
 [[Category: Comics featuring Blondie]]
 [[Category: Physics]]

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-{{incomplete|make less technical}}
+{{incomplete|This page was created in a Minecraft Ice Spikes Biome. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
 This comic illustrates the difference between the simplified idealised version of science that is often taught in the classroom, and the much weirder, more unexpected and complicated phenomena that can happen in reality.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:25, 20 September 2025
Line 10:		Line 10:

	==Explanation==		==Explanation==
		+	{{incomplete\|make less technical}}
		+
	This comic illustrates the difference between the simplified idealised version of science that is often taught in the classroom, and the much weirder, more unexpected and complicated phenomena that can happen in reality.		This comic illustrates the difference between the simplified idealised version of science that is often taught in the classroom, and the much weirder, more unexpected and complicated phenomena that can happen in reality.

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 ==Transcript==
 :[Blondie is standing to the right of a table, with her right hand gesturing toward a bowl of ice sitting on a table. There is a header above the comic. There is a line underneath the header.]
 :Header: Phase change in theory

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:24, 20 September 2025
Line 10:		Line 10:

	==Explanation==		==Explanation==
−	~~{{incomplete\|This page was created in a Minecraft Ice Spikes Biome. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}~~
	This comic illustrates the difference between the simplified idealised version of science that is often taught in the classroom, and the much weirder, more unexpected and complicated phenomena that can happen in reality.		This comic illustrates the difference between the simplified idealised version of science that is often taught in the classroom, and the much weirder, more unexpected and complicated phenomena that can happen in reality.