Why do sugary drinks such as Kool Aid and Hawaiian Punch seem not to get cold despite how much ice one adds in it?
In: Chemistry
It’s the sugar. Adding sugar to a drink gives it more mass/volume than an equivalent volume of water. Koolaid is essentially sugar water.
Sugar’s heat capacity is less than that of water (it can store less heat per unit of mass), but not low enough to not have an effect. In this case, a 2:1 mixture of sugar/water will hold about ~125% more heat than an equivalent volume of water.
In other words, a 12oz glass of sugar water will hold more heat energy than a 12oz glass of pure water. That means that you need to dissipate *more* heat from a koolaid mixture than you would plain water in order to cool both to the same temperature.
There’s also the issues of conduction (which is negligible in this case) and convection. In a still glass of koolaid, the dense sugar solution will sink to the bottom of the glass, and the cool, pure, melted ice water will rise to the top. There is virtually no convection happening here and therefore the temperature difference will only slowly travel across the small area where the two liquids meet. A stirred glass will better allow the cool ice water to mix with the koolaid solution.
Edit for clarity.
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