  A drop of water deposited on a cold plate freezes into an ice drop with a
pointy tip. While this phenomenon clearly finds its origin in the expansion of
water upon freezing, a quantitative description of the tip singularity has
remained elusive. Here we demonstrate how the geometry of the freezing front,
determined by heat transfer considerations, is crucial for the tip formation.
We perform systematic measurements of the angles of the conical tip, and reveal
the dynamics of the solidification front in a Hele-Shaw geometry. It is found
that the cone angle is independent of substrate temperature and wetting angle,
suggesting a universal, self-similar mechanism that does not depend on the rate
of solidification. We propose a model for the freezing front and derive
resulting tip angles analytically, in good agreement with observations.
