If thats an actual picture...I don't even see how that could hold 10lbs, or if it could...I wouldn't want to drink water that dense o_0

Although I don't doubt that McDonald's ripped off Brad, I hardly think "weighing yourself with and without the bag" is a scientific way of obtaining the true weight of the bag. I would be very curious what the real weight of the bag was.

Sonic has been selling ice for as long as I can remember. Of course, getting it home before the little chunks freeze into a solid sonic ice block is a challenge...but a worthy one. I love their ice.

In our area, mcdonalds sells their ice and it's cheaper than convenience stores and most groceries...assuming your getting the full 10 pounds...which apparently doesn't happen!

sic Walmart's with McDonald's in them.

@Radi0logy: huh? sounds ABSOLUTELY scientific, within the inherent error of the scale.

actually they've been selling ice for years, since i was little. We used to get our ice from mc d's for parties, it was always cheaper than the other places

@Radi0logy: Actually, that's precisely the scientific method of weighing things as far as the procedure goes. First you weigh your sample container - in this case Brad - then you weight the sample and the container - brad holding ice - and subtract to get the sample weight.

How exactly do you think Brad's method altered the calculation? It's not as though holding a bag makes 3.8 lbs of stuff disappear, otherwise boy would backpacking be easy!

maybe some of it melted by the time he got home

wait...that doesn't work

@trixrabbit: Yup. That's how you weigh pets... or anything that you'd have trouble keeping still on the scale.

What would be un-scientific about simple subtraction?

Well, if they fill the bag up properly I would guess it would hold about 10 lbs. My guess is whoever filled the bag of ice just filled them part way and didn't know/care they weren't heavy enough.

I thought I had been using the word "henceforth" incorrectly all these years, but indeed it is the OP who misused it.

To be slightly on-topic, this could be an issue for the dept. of weights and measures, who actually care if things are labeled correctly and such. A dollar for 6.3 lbs of ice is actually still a pretty good deal (I think I paid $1.50 for a 7 lb bag, which I did not weigh, a few weeks ago - again, feel free to assume that it was for organ theft).

@Radi0logy: "I hardly think "weighing yourself with and without the bag" is a scientific way of obtaining the true weight"

Why not?

@skipjack: What is there to love about... ice? Does it taste better? Is it in a unique, optimum shape? Does it taste like steak? Tell us more about this love affair you have with Sonic's ice. :-)

I never knew McDonald's sold ice. I'm assuming this is either a store-by-store decision as I've never seen it advertised, unless its just one of those things you have to ask for.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I found my scale will give me a different weight if I step on it several consecutive times, sometimes off by as much as 4.5 lbs.

We can determine what the theoretical maximum weight of ice could be in the bag. If we determine the volume to the line and then multiply by the density of ice, we can get a theoretical maximum mass. (This assume 0% porosity in the ice).
Another method is the fill the bag to the line with water, weight it, then correct for solid/liquid density variation since ice is less dense than water.
Based on the size of the bag it looks like it could hold 10 lbs IF it was a solid block ice or if it was filled with crushed ice with very little porosity.

I know... I think to much, but I'm an engineer. I can't help it :(

@jtheletter:

The problem is in the accuracy of the scale. The heavier Brad is, the more the weight of the ice gets lost in the margin of error. And those bathroom scales can be quite a bit inaccurate. I have a crappy digital one that can easily fluctuate a pound or two in either direction.

It would be better if he took several readings to see how precise his scale is.

@AliyaBabasaur: Then you need a new scale.

@scoosdad: Sonic's ice is in little rabbit-pellet sized bits. It's dense and gives your drinks a slushy consistency.

@MaelstromRider: Nope, I don't. It was super cheap and it meets my needs as a person's body weight can easily fluctuate 5 or so pounds within a single day given food and fluid retention issues. I wouldn't, however, use it for scientific measurement.

@ludwigk: "A dollar for 6.3 lbs of ice is actually still a pretty good deal "

I came in here to say that. That's better than any price I get for ice around these parts.

Yeah, there's no science to filling an ice bag. I used to do it when I worked at a gas station over 10 years ago. You just shovel ice in until it looks pretty full, then tie the bag up. At no point was I ever instructed to verify the weight of the contents.

Wasn't there an amusing episode of "Mad About You" where there was a whole diatribe about buying ice?

does McD's fill the bags themselves, or do they buy them from an ice maker?

i worked in an ice manufacturing plant for many summers, in college, and the process there was pretty sloppy. ice came out of a giant machine, into a giant bin and was dumped into bags by a machine that mis-filled the bags so often that, when we were bagging, one guy would have to stand by the filling machine and pull out jammed or mis-filled bags. we were shooting for 8lb bags, but it wasn't unusual for light (or heavy) bags to get through. then, they get stacked on pallets and stored - sometimes for months - in a freezer. eventually they're loaded onto trucks, driven around all day, and finally thrown into ice machines by kids making minimum wage. every step of the way, there's an opportunity for melting or crushing (which makes melting easier when the chance comes).

Wouldn't a kitchen scale been a good way to go? Put a couple of full cereal boxes on it to ensure it's accurate and you'd be good to go. You could even remove the cellophane bag from the box to get an even more accurate measurement. So if your Trix weigh a pound and your scale registers a pound (or 2 pounds if you put 2 bags on it), I would trust the numbers.

Might I also suggest a labeling change? What if instead of "approximately 10 pounds" it was changed to "at least 7 pounds? So, if you get 8 you're thrilled, but if you get 6.5 you report them to Weights & Measures.

@emnik: "It would be better if he took several readings to see how precise his scale is."

I absolutely agree, however his calculation method is sound, which is what I was defending.

Although I'm still curious as to why he couldn't place a bag directly on the scale since it would fit and doesn't move around like pets.

The McDs and Burger Kings around me both do this. Today as I was going through the drive through I noticed the sign at McDs which read "10# ice $1.20" took me a minute to realize that # was used in place of lb. I was like 10 octalthorpe of ice? What?

@skipjack: @ChuckECheese: AKA Party ice, my work has an ice machine in the break room that does party ice so i get that stuff for free :D!

@ludwigk: It was labelled correctly- it said "approximately". I think the significance of the variance would be determined by a court.

@ludwigk: After arriving at the destination of a long road trip, my sister's friend announced that she must, henceforth, go to the bathroom. When I managed to stop laughing, I told her that I'd make sure her family knew where she was. No wonder I was always dorky brother.

Smart way for McDonald's to get some additional revenue out of their icemaker. I wonder how they ever concluded that the bag held 10 lbs of ice. Maybe they filled the bag with water, froze it, and weighed that? Because there's a lot of air in a bag of ice.

7 pounds or 10 pounds, $1 is cheaper than most place charge for a bag of ice around here. Really "1 pound of ice" is meaningless to me. I don't look at my cooler and say "looks like it'll take about 13 pounds of ice to fill it up." I look at the cooler, look at the bags and say "looks like it'll take 3 small bags or 2 big bags to fill it up." I go by the size of the bag, not the (alleged) weight.

Still, McDonald's needs to correct the label.

@Mike Gerow: Yeah i used to bag ice as well and i never even thought about the weight. If anything though we overfilled the bag as most times they barely tied closed when we were done with them.

@Gokuhouse: There is what appears to be a fill line on the bag and from the picture (with the bag flattened out on a table, mind you), the ice looks to be well above the line.

@Radi0logy: Why coulndn't he just put the bag on the scale?

@Radi0logy: On a good professional scale, vets use this method to weigh cats and puppies. My pediatrician's nurse used this method a couple of times when my (then) toddler would not hold still unless someone was snuggling him.

@Mike Gerow: I doubt it. I found "Mad About You" to be only marginally amusing.

@Julia789: Perhaps Brad over-snuggled the ice and a portion of it melted out of the bag.

I always thought "100% Pure Beef" was the name of the company providing the meat....

@OminousG: maybe 10 pounds of water

I'm guessing that orders are filled by asking one of the 16 year olds to fill a bag from the ice machine. We only know if he lost out on the purchase if he weighted every bag. Maybe the kid overfilled others.

So we know he was drinking at this party -- what was he smoking that made him want to weigh ice?

@discounteggroll:

That would work if the ice melted and the water leaked out which is entirely possible. Water weighs ~8lbs per gallon so that means he must have lost a little less than half a gallon per bag to be light by 3.8 lbs which is hard to believe.

@qwijybo: Law of conservation fail. =)

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): You really need to use an inertial balance in case of localized disturbances in the gravitational force (usually the result of psychokinetic levitation).

@HiPwr: Indeed! it's more like that's a FIVE pound bag of ice that's been generously overfilled.

It is a ripoff. But in my area a 3lb bag of ice is 1.50 and the 7lb is $3 (and on holiday weekends they only offer the 3lb bags). So the McDonald's ice is still a better deal.

@AliyaBabasaur: I liked the day I stepped onto my scale and it told me I lost 30lbs. Sadly, on my second attempt to verify I regained it.

These bags are filled by volume, not weight. I used to bag ice for a living, stuffing as much ice as possible into the bags, which really just annoyed people because the bags were then difficult to carry. Also: never consume bagged ice.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: I couldn't have said it better myself. Get over it. It's a buck. There are bigger fish to fry.

If you don't like it, go to the gas station and pay $2 for the extra 38%...assuming they fill it to 10 lbs exactly.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: Agreed. I think it is cheaper than anywhere else, and it is a decent deal, regardless.

@AliyaBabasaur: That's the most inaccurate scale I've ever heard of. Why even have one at all? You'd be better off guessing your weight.