I need to make a shoe box house that will home an ice cube. It musn't melt.

Question

These are the design briefs

Each house starts a shoebox.

It must have some windows which area equals a third of an A4 piece of paper.

The windows can be left open or covered in plastic wrap.

It can be insulated in whatever materials.

You can paint the outside surface or cover it with material.

There must be enough space left inside for a brick to fit in

Please help. I will award points.

Answer 1

All ice melts unless it is in a freezer.  But dry ice doesn't melt unless it gets wet.  You can buy dry ice at some deli's.   But if your not allowed to use dry ice.  Then I would try to first make the ice cube then wrap the cube in plastic wrap.  Insulate the whole area of the box then try using foil to cover the insulation.  Make sure no air gets in then place the cube in the box and seal it tight again making sure that no air gets in.  Place the entire box back in the freezer till your ready to leave.  Then place the box into a ice chest with as much ice as possible to keep it as cold as the freezer.   Good luck!

Answer 2

ice raises the temperature at which ice will melt, i e making it harder to melt, so add plenty of salt (rock salt works best), same theory as making homemade icecream

Answer 3

would you be allowed/or were you told you couldn't use like a 12 volt power supply to provide your house with "electricity"?if so the rest would be no problem  

Answer 4

Use a few layers of saran wrap or get some thin plexi glass to use for the windows. On the inside, frame the windows with cardboard, cover the opening so that nothing can get in it for right now.

Get a can of Great Stuff.  Just spray it on. (You might want to do a test spray first so that you can get an idea of how it expands.) Once it is dry use a knife to level it out. Remove the lid of the window frames.  Then cover the interior with foil or peices of cardboard that you can glue contruction paper on to for colored walls. If you use foil on the interior you can still paint it or cover it with colored paper. And it will add more insulation to it.

For the lid of the shoe box you will need to measure the area that the insulation takes up on the interior. Build a little retention wall on the lid that is slightly smaller than in the interior walls of the shoe box. Spray some great stuff inside of this so that it will fit into the box like cooler lid. When its dry level it off so that it is not too thick to still fit a brick into it. Then cover it with the same materials you covered the interior walls with.  

Answer 5

Cover outside of box with foil, and insulate the inside box with Styrofoam. Just a thought.