I’m not a huge natural science person, but I just wonder what the process of “transferring” temperature is from ice to drinks. And why does it happen fast?
In: Physics
The natural world is about balance. Technically the ice is not making the water colder. The water is making the ice warmer.
As temperature drops towards absolute zero (kelvins, and yes, Kelvin is more than a Star Trek timeline), the speed of the molecules decreases. As the speed slows, the molecules get closer together (compress) and it releases very little heat. When surrounded by warmer water/drink the heat released (the molecules are moving freely spending heat) by the water molecules is absorbed by the ice. The drink gets colder because it is losing heat to the ice.
We can get into more details explaining endothermic and exothermic reactions, but that would be beyond ELI5.
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