discussion at work
block of ice, 75 cm high
icesculpted Porsche Carrera, life size, on top of that block
in it, a set of keys for a Porsche Carrera
the car is outside, on a market square, it's not a cold winter over here, it doesnt' freeze at night at the moment, and we get day temps between 3 and 7 C ( in the shade)
guess the time in secs till the set of keys hits the ground, win the Porsche
that's the basis for the discussion
collegue, is a university bred type
i'm a high school dropout
so he says, easy, just take the weight of the keys, run some formula about the fixed sink rate of an object(mass) in ice, which is not variable and that's it
i'm guessing this sinkrate is A not as invariable, B there are more factors involved, C even if you did calculate it, that result would be of minor importance in the grand scheme of this melting thing
my guess is this sinkrate over the whole time span would be maybe a few inches or something, if it were a block off ice with no external factors, which is not the case, as there are many, many factors( external temp, water used for the ice, how old is the ice, how was the sculpture built, sun light, ice consistency, rain , etc et etc...)
je insists that the weight of the object, as a cause of melting under the object would be linear and predictable enough to come real close to the real result.. and snipped a few times "didn't you learn physics in school?!"
i'm saying, ok , you run the numbers, just make sure you let me have a test drive in it , once you win
any physics guru's who can shed some insight?