Alcohol
Science brain teasers require understanding of the physical or biological world and the laws that govern it.
A girl was offered a drink of water with ice-cubes at a party. She narrowed her eyes and said, "This is part alcohol." How did she know?
Answer
The ice-cubes were floating in the middle of the drink. Since alcohol is less dense than ice-cubes, it floats to the top and the ice-cubes go to the middle, above the water where water stays at the bottom.
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Comments
Beelzebub 
Jun 26, 2002
| I have mixed alcohol and other drinks ( most of the mixture was alcohol ) and I never noticed this before. Then again I might have been too drunk..... |
mad-ade  
Jun 26, 2002
| if some one gave me a drink at a party, then I would hope it had alcohol in it!!!! |
andy1608
Jun 28, 2002
| Wouldn't the water and alcohol mix, so the alcohol became diluted, and the drink the same density throughout? |
cathalmccabe
Jul 02, 2002
| "I have mixed alcohol and other drinks ( most of the mixture was alcohol ) and I never noticed this before. Then again I might have been too drunk....."
If you drink vodka straight its normally 40% Alcohol. This means that the mixture is mostly water not alcohol. The highest I've drank I think is 60% (Maybe 70% MAX). If you mix these with a drink, you dilute further the alcohol |
dsquared 
Feb 20, 2003
| I thought that the answer was going to be that there was Ouzo in the glass because when you mix water with Ouzo it goes cloudy. I figured she had seen the area around the ice cubes begin to go cloudy and therefore new there was Ouzo in the glass. |
iLuVcOwS_00 
Jun 18, 2005
| i luv it. good job!!!  |
beegum
Dec 13, 2005
| Hmm...I was thinking she knew because of the extreme cold...cold ice cubes will result in an alcohol mixture with a temperature less then 32F (freezing)...now this is a property i have actually noticed... |
cyberstar5150
Jul 31, 2006
| Um... water and alcohol DO mix, so I think this teaser is bogus. |
bookworm91
Apr 17, 2007
| In theory, this would be a good way to tell. However, it would take a while for the water and the alchohol to separate, at least longer than it takes to mix the drink, then take it to the girl, wouldn't it? Things like oil and water separate very fast, because water and oil aren't compatible. But alchohol is partly water anyway, and the density isn't so incredibly different that the two liquids would separate quickly.
Correct me if I'm wrong 
Now, since I don't know just how long it would take to separate, if the drink had sat for a bit before being taken to the girl, then this could work. In any case, it's a good teaser. I enjoyed it |
tangled_brain
Jun 18, 2008
| um you ARE wrong. alcohol isn't partly water; alcoholic DRINKS are. They don't separate--in fact, they are 100% soluble in each other, making this teaser bogus, |
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