Fun with maths

Some months ago, I got a tad annoyed at dealing with 5-pound bags of ice in the freezer, mainly because when I’d go in for some, almost inevitably one or two chunks of ice would slide out and skitter across the floor. So, I did a little ice volume calculation and measured the depth of the freezer shelf and figured that this item was precisely the ticket, and I mean really precisely, as if it were made for just this task though no one mentions it.

I had a slight frisson of satisfaction when I put that first bag of ice into the container and found the lid was just able to close, and the container fit like a glove on the shelf, with the tabs under the back end of the container hooked around the back of the shelf and holding it in place. A bit of packing tape – which still sticks when frozen – on the back end of the lid turned it into a hinged one.

3 thoughts on “Fun with maths

  1. parislights says:

    uh you buy ice lalo?

    hummm. That’s a recent thing here in France and seasonal at best. I only know one store, Picard, the frozen food people that sells ice. how do you get it home without it melting and sticking together ?

    Bon. The math bit is as always, impressive. Love when something works just so !

    -p

    • lalmon says:

      Yup, I do buy it, mainly because, as someone once wrote in The New Yorker, homemade ice cubes “carry mysterious flavors”. Market Basket-branded 5-pound bags are cheap at 99ยข, made with spring water so they taste unmysterious and good, are perfectly clear, and broken into chunks small enough to fit the Thermos containers I use for water, iced tea, and iced coffee, pic below.

      Getting it home without it all sticking together? Well, the nearest Market Basket is just fifteen minutes away and ice is always the last thing I grab before checkout. Sometimes it does melt a bit; the procedure when that happens is to get it in the freezer, wait a half-hour or so just until it’s all frozen again – longer than that would promote more sticking together – then bring it out and drop the sturdy plastic bag from a height onto the kitchen floor a few times. Good as new!

      Thermos Intak

  2. parislights says:

    right! i imagined something like that ! but what a tralala !

    I recently needed crystal clear ice cubes for work…and while I have fake ones that are really something, one of my photographers only accepts the real thing. So I made clear cubes by filling the molds w evian, letting them sit out for an hour or so then carefully moving them to a small isoterm box in the freezer that i have especially for this purpose. Next morning and voila perfectly clear ice cubes. Talk about tralala !

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