A lesson from 6th grade, remembered.

I remember 6th grade science class. Mr. Valenta with the glass eye was our teacher, his class was the last room on the left in the 6th grade hallway. That year, we learned about water, (I don't really remember him teaching us much, he would actually leave the answer book out for us to 'check' our answers before we turned in our homework). But I do remember having this conversation about ice. Wikipedia sums it up nicely:

An unusual property of ice frozen at atmospheric pressure is that the solid is approximately 9% less dense than liquid water. Ice is the only known non-metallic substance to expand when it freezes.^{[citation needed]} The density of ice is 0.9167 g/cm³ at 0°C, whereas water has a density of 0.9998 g/cm³ at the same temperature. Liquid water is densest, essentially 1.00 g/cm³, at 4°C and becomes less dense as the water molecules begin to form the hexagonal crystals^[2] of ice as the freezing point is reached. This is due to hydrogen bonding dominating the intermolecular forces, which results in a packing of molecules less compact in the solid. Density of ice increases slightly with decreasing temperature and has a value of 0.9340 g/cm³ at −180 °C (93 K).^[3]

Ok, so that's probably deeper than we went in science class in middle school, but bear with me. So, basically we learned that ice expands when it freezes, you notice this when you fill an ice cube tray with water it comes out more full than it was when you put it in initially see exibit A:

Now, what does this have to do with the price of rice in china? (though if you were wondering, pay attention to the next figure). 

Absolutely nothing. EXCEPT today I learned how this 6th grade lesson is applicable in real life. 

Today was the first day of school, it was also the first day of my new work schedule. So, I made sure everything was all ready. I got up early, ate some breakfast, and drove to campus, where I parked at the Marriott Center (formerly known as the 'big MAC') and walked to my class in the Museum of Art (yes, I have a class in there, it's pretty chill.) By the time I got out of class it was pretty warm, I was too hot with my coat and my scarf on. So I drove to my boss' house in Orem. Would you believe that her road is, I am almost certain, the only road in Orem still covered in ice. (Ok, probably not, but it's the only road in Orem that I have to drive on!) So I try to figure out where to park, I hesitated, it looked like this:

except that there was TONS and TONS of you know what (SNOW, silly!) piled up anywhere that wasn't driveway. So, I looked for the smallest pile of snow, drove over it, and parked my car. 

6 hours later Betsy wasn't going anywhere. So, I pulled out my trusty girl scout cell phone and called my dad. I tried very hard to be successful and resourceful, assuming that I was simply stuck in a rut. I tried branches and kitty litter, I tried rocking, I almost tried my chains, till we figured it out (DAD figured it out). Had I thought back 12 years (12 YEARS!) to my science class (or to the last time I filled up an ice cube tray), I might have remembered that Ice expands leaving me in this kind of situation:

(please note, I have a 1985 volvo sedan, not a jacked up jeep, but the idea is the same). Apparently this is called "high centering" and this is what happened to Betsy. 

Try as I might, by myself there was no way that I could get her out on my own. 

I wish I could tell you that at that moment a prince charming type figure came to my rescue and with one powerful, muscular arm saved me. I wouldn't mind if he looked like this:

(the one on the left, actually, being saved by the one in the back would be impressive too.)

Alas, the day was saved by my boss who called her hometeacher's wife, who said she would "send vincent right over." So Vincent came from 3 doors down, hooked betsy up to his little SUV thing and 2 minutes later (probably less) I was home free. 

I feel like I ought to write sentences: 

I will never park there again.

I will never park there again.

I will never park there again.

I will never park there again. 

And I will remember that ice expands when things cool down for the evening. And get some ice melt, and some tow straps. 

Thank you Mr. Valenta