A giant wall of ice

The heat capacity of water is 4.19 kJ/K/kg. Add the heat of fusion 333 kJ/kg, which ends in a total (333+100*4.19) kJ/kg = 752 kJ/kg that you need to remove from boiling water too freeze it.

Isn't the heat capacity of air roughly 500 J/K/kg at atmospheric pressure, and "normal" temperatures?

If the air is warmed from -35ºC to 0ºC, you'd need 752/0.5/35 kg = 43 kg of air to cool down the water. (43 kg of air ~= 43 m^3) It's not likely that the water will meet 43 m^3 of air on it's way down to the ground.

Even if we say that the air is heated (on average) to somewhere in the middle of the waters starting and ending temperature, we'd still need 752/0.5/(50 - -35) kg = 18 kg => 18 m^3 of air.
Still not likely.
 
I hope everyone understands that some of the temps in this thread (like the pic from the orignal post and the coments about Myth Busters) are likely in farieheit while others are speaking of celcius.
 
kyleb said:
I hope everyone understands that some of the temps in this thread (like the pic from the orignal post and the coments about Myth Busters) are likely in farieheit while others are speaking of celcius.
Yes, but the difference isn't too big since -40°C = -40°F (and +-1°C equals +-1.8°F)
 
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