I’m pausing the weekly Micro Softy column to make a breakthrough announcement that will be a blessing to all the people in the world like me who struggle with weight control.

I’m proposing a landmark diet that is simple to understand and to live with. It’s genius! I call it Dr. Marks’ Incredible Ice Diet. (My doctorate isn’t in medicine, nutrition, or any health-related field — but never mind. I am confident.)  I’m happy to disclose my new diet here because I’m planning to submit a provisional patent on the idea, which was filed prior to the publication of this column.

The idea uses easy-to-understand basic physics. Many diets are based on counting calories. The calorie is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 cubic centimeter of water by 1 degree Centigrade (Celsius) at a pressure of 1 atmosphere.

So consider an ice cube measuring three centimeters on each side. (Three centimeters is a little over an inch.) 

• The volume of the ice cube is approximately 27 cubic centimeters.
• An ice cube taken from the freezer is typically around minus 18°C.
• Human body temperature is about 98.6°F, which is roughly 37°C.
• When you eat an ice cube, it melts and eventually reaches a temperature close to that of your body.
• Thus you are raising the ice cube’s temperature by 55°C (from −18°C to 37°C).
• Heating 27 cubic centimeters of ice by 55°C requires your body to expend nearly 1,485 calories (since 55 × 27 = 1,485)!

This is about the number of calories in five jelly doughnuts, three Big Macs or ten scoops of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream!

If you eat a lot of ice, fat will melt off you like a snowman’s skin in summer.

There are only three rules to Dr. Marks’ Incredible Ice Diet.

1. Before each meal, consume two large ice cubes (freshly crushed is fine).
2. When possible, do not defrost and cook your food — eat it frozen. (Yes. This includes pizza.)
3. Eat all the ice cream you want. The calories burned raising the ice cream to body temperature cancel out its caloric intake.

I plan to make millions on this dietary revolution, just like Dr. Atkins’ did. After filing the provisional patent, the first thing I plan to do is …  

Uh-oh. Wait a minute… 

I just had a disturbing memory. I remember a lecture on nutrition when I was a freshman in college.

My ice diet won’t work. Nuts. So, for this week’s Micro Softy, why won’t the Ice Diet work?

Solution to Micro Softy 85: Are you up to caliber?

Here’s last week’s Micro Softy: During World War II, American soldiers used rifles that fired .30-caliber (7.62 mm) ammunition. When Japan entered the war, they began producing rifles that fired .31-caliber (7.7 mm) bullets Here’s the question: Why would the Japanese intentionally design a slightly larger caliber weapon?

The answer is that the larger caliber served two strategic purposes. First, if Japanese troops had to abandon a position and their ammunition was captured by Americans, it couldn’t be used—the .31-caliber bullets were too large to fit into U.S. .30-caliber rifles.

Second, if the Japanese captured American ammunition, the smaller .30-caliber rounds could fit into their .31-caliber rifles, allowing them to use U.S. bullets against American forces.

In short, the caliber difference ensured that Japanese ammo was useless to Americans, but American ammo remained usable to the Japanese.

The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Micro Softy 85: Are you up to caliber? There is a serious question here: Why might small differences in caliber matter? Why would a military force decide to use a slightly different caliber of bullets from the one used by the enemy force?

Monday Micro Softy 84: Meet the Followers What happens when everyone in the swarm is a follower? To solve last week’s puzzle, we should picture what must happen when every bug wants to place itself between two other bugs.

Monday Micro Softy 83: A Swarm of Cowards? In terms of swarm intelligence, what happens if we have a swarm of cowards instead of peacemakers? We continue to explore the way simple roles followed by unintelligent agents — even dumb bugs — can yield complex behavior.

Monday Micro Softy 82:  When Bugs Break Up Fights. A surprising amount of intelligence of use in the computer industry can be learned from watching insects. To solve last week’s puzzle, keep in mind that every termite is doing the same thing. You can find puzzles 77 through 81 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 81: Termites are Surprisingly Smart. Provided we agree to count swarm intelligence, which we also use in computer science. Swarm intelligence enables the colony to converge on the shortest and most efficient path to food without any individual being especially smart.

Monday Micro Softy 80: The Digits of Least Significance. The patterns found in numbers can be useful as well as fascinating. Last week’s puzzle is also easier to solve if we observe some of the patterns that number theory reveals.

Monday Micro Softy 79: The Last Digits in Fermat’s Last Theorem. Did Andrew Wiles really prove Fermat’s Last Theorem? Today we offer you a chance to decide. About last week’s Micro Softy: Think of the probability issue as just a distraction…

Monday Micro Softy 78: Card Sharks That Bite Harder. You can beat the odds in some card games if you understand probability theory. Try your chances! Last week’s puzzle, like several others, is easy to solve if we use inclusive thinking about relationships.

Monday Micro Softy 77: Two Proud Texans  I’m aware of no other state where businesses and citizens proudly fly their state flag. I live in McGregor, Texas, where Elon Musk’s Space X has a testing center, and occasionally, the testing of their rocket engines gently rattles the dishes on the shelves in my home. 

Monday Micro Softy 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find puzzles 55 through 75 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find puzzles 51 through 54 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedalling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!