My kid asked me why her ice cube stuck to the kitchen towel and I honestly couldn’t explain it. I think it would be considered Physics, but I could also see it being under chemistry. I hope I got this right, thank you for your help!
In: Physics
Cloth is made up of a bunch of very tiny fibers, and each of them has its own surface area so a towel will have much more surface area than a plastic sheet the same size.
Ice is made of a crystalline lattice with a lot of empty space, so it also has far more surface area than you would expect
When objects with a lot of surface area and fairly little mass come into contact, vacanthey can stick to each other through temporary electromagnetic attraction. That is how geckos stick to glass.
There is a little water in the cloth towel.
When the ice comes in contact with it, a the water in the cloth is cooled and freezes to the ice.
The towel is warmer than the ice cube
The icecube melts a bit onto the warmer towel
The towel becomes colder and wetter
The icecube cools down the towel enough that the water on it re freezes
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