Uploaded November 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Welcome to my channel! Here at AlphaPhoenix, you'll see cool maker projects and awesome physics demos. Check out this montage and remember to subscribe!
Welcome to my channel! Here at AlphaPhoenix, you'll see cool maker projects and awesome physics demos. Check out this montage and remember to subscribe!








![What is polycrystalline water?
Episode 2 of my series on water ice! Admittedly this is probably the least interesting because its some negative results, but its not very scientific to only discuss successes right? In this video, I use a lens to melt ice from the inside out, exposing its polycrystalline structure (and explain how its different from a single crystal). With this partially-melted ice, I can do a bit of materials forensics, and actually figure out how it formed, hopefully so I can improve the process in the future!
Next video will be on vapor growth, and Ill say right now that it DOES work to grow centimeters-big faceted single crystals! Subscribe to make sure you see it!
CORRECTIONS:
[none yet!]
Other videos in this series:
The Sound of Freezing, Explained!
https://youtu.be/Wd_c0A8u3lw
The Sound of Freezing (Bonus Footage)
https://youtu.be/hpzutKRSukw
What is polycrystalline water?
https://youtu.be/g7ONBuVtz-w
Check out the other social media for updates and ramblings:
https://www.facebook.com/AlphaPhoenixChannel/
https://twitter.com/Alpha Phoenix
https://reddit.com/r/tryitagain
Interesting articles for the extra-curious:
J.M. Adams, W. Lewis, The Production of Large Single Crystals of Ice, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 5 (1934) 400–402. doi:10.1063/1.1751759.
T. Shichiri, Faceted ice crystals grown in water without air, J. Cryst. Growth. 187 (1998) 133–137. doi:10.1016/S0022-0248(97)00839-7.
P. Bisson, H. Groenzin, I.L. Barnett, M.J. Shultz, High yield, single crystal ice via the Bridgman method, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87 (2016) 034103. doi:10.1063/1.4944481.
A. Cahoon, M. Maruyama, J.S. Wettlaufer, Growth-Melt Asymmetry in Crystals and Twelve-Sided Snowflakes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 255502. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.255502.
T. Gonda, The Growth of Small Ice Crystals in Gases of High and Low Pressures, C, J. Meteorol. Soc. Japan. Ser. II. 55 (1977) 142–146. doi:10.2151/jmsj1965.55.1_142.
Y. Furukawa, S. Kohata, Temperature dependence of the growth form of negative crystal in an ice single crystal and evaporation kinetics for its surfaces, J. Cryst. Growth. 129 (1993) 571–581. doi:10.1016/0022-0248(93)90493-G.
N.N. Khusnatdinov, V.F. Petrenko, Fast-growth technique for ice single crystals, J. Cryst. Growth. 163 (1996) 420–425. doi:10.1016/0022-0248(95)00980-9.
D. v. d. S. Roos, Rapid Production of Single Crystals of Ice, J. Glaciol. 14 (1975) 325–328. doi:10.3189/s0022143000021808.
Example of single crystal casting through a corkscrew shaped crucible for turbine blades http://040b.synthasite.com/resources/120b.pdf
#Materials #Physics #Crystals
Music and images in this video:
I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgman%E2%80%93Stockbarger_method#/media/File:Bridgman-Stockbarger-Technique.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake#/media/File:Snowflake_macro_photography_1.jpg What is polycrystalline water?](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g7ONBuVtz-w/mqdefault.jpg)

