Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuffworks dot com, where
Speaker 1: smart happens. I am Mars Brain with today's question, why
Speaker 1: is a popsicle called a quiescently frozen confection? Popsicles have
Speaker 1: been around for nearly a hundred years. Ever since a
Speaker 1: cold night in nine five, when eleven year old Frank
Speaker 1: Epperson left a cup of soda pop with a stirring
Speaker 1: stick in it outside, popsicles have been a cool and
Speaker 1: flavorful treat for young and old al While the trademark
Speaker 1: Popsicle brand is the most popular, the industry sells more
Speaker 1: than a billion of the variously flavored ice on his
Speaker 1: Stick treats every year, and the vast majority of them
Speaker 1: are quiescently frozen. This phrase actually refers to the fact
Speaker 1: that flavored ice is simply put in a refrigerator and frozen.
Speaker 1: The word quiescently means in a RESTful state. This distinction
Speaker 1: is made because ice cream and most other frozen confections
Speaker 1: are stirred or agitated in the process known as overrunning.
Speaker 1: For example, overrunning is what causes the ice cream mixture
Speaker 1: to expand as it slowly freezes, by creating little bubbles
Speaker 1: of air in the mixture. It requires constant agitation until
Speaker 1: the confection is ready Quiescently frozen mixtures are not stirred
Speaker 1: or agitated at all after the mixture is prepared. If
Speaker 1: you've ever tried to make flavored ice at home, you
Speaker 1: may have noticed that the flavor does not distribute evenly.
Speaker 1: Often you have an ice cube with a confection of
Speaker 1: flavor at the bottom. In the case of flavored ice,
Speaker 1: the water freezes at thirty two degrees fahrenheit or zero
Speaker 1: degrees celsius, while most of the other ingredients have a
Speaker 1: lower freezing temperature. Commercial vendors of flavored ice use stabilizing
Speaker 1: ingredients that keep the syrup, flavoring, and other ingredients from
Speaker 1: separating from the ice as it forms. Instead, these other
Speaker 1: ingredients become a sort of semi frozen lubricant between the
Speaker 1: ice crystals, giving popsicles their slushy consistency. Be sure to
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