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Am I missing something? It seems obvious that the same mass of ice will cause the some amount of dilution and have the same heat capacity. All the stuff about surface area versus volume is just worrying about how long it takes the ice to dissolve, but it seems like they did all their experiments until the drink reached thermal equilibrium... the ice melted, and the drink got slightly watered down.

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Yes, it seems obvious. But it's nice to see that the experiment doesn't invalidate those assumptions. Personally I also find it interesting to see the measurements (it's nice to know that about 12 seconds is "enough", that's certainly longer than "just a little").

Yes, the same amount of ice will cause the same amount of dilution. What they were using as a comparison metric is how enjoyable the drink is during the typical time it takes to consume the beverage (I infer). Most of the time the beverage is consumed before the ice has fully melted in my experience. The level of dilution during the time period in which there is still solid ice is what was being compared.

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