Why store-bought popsicles are so easy to bite through, but home-made ice-cube tray popsicles are hard as rocks. (Chemistry? Physics?)
In: 440
It’s the sugar. As the sugary solution freezes, the growing ice crystals exclude sugar from their crystal structure, meaning it gets more and more concentrated in the not-yet-frozen liquid. As the concentration of sugar goes up, the freezing point decreases, so, at ordinary freezer temperatures, the process eventually stops, leaving a network of ice crystals with sugary liquid in the interstices; essentially a firm slush. Thus, it’s much less mechanically strong than solid ice, and easy to bite through. If you chilled the popsicle to liquid nitrogen temperatures, it would all be frozen, and very hard.
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