What Makes Ice Melt Fastest
Abstract
If we live in a place that gets cold in the winter, we have probably seen trucks out spreading a mixture of sand and salt on the streets after a snowfall to help deice the road.
Do we sometimes dump ice cubes into a drink to help keep cool on a hot summer day? Have we ever watched the ice cubes melt and wondered how we could make them melt more slowly—or even faster? In this science activity we will get to try some different, common household substances to try and answer this question: What will help a solid ice cube turn into a liquid puddle the fastest?
This
basic chemistry project can give we some clues.
Question
● Which of the suggested test substances are soluble in water? ● Which of the suggested test substances are insoluble in water? ● Which of the suggested test substances makes ice melt fatest? Hypothesis
● The sugar and table salt are soluble in water.
● The sand is not soluble in water.
● The table salt makes iice melt fatest.
If we have ever made homemade ice cream the oldfashioned way using a handcrank machine, we probably know that we need ice and rock salt to make the cream mixture cold enough to freeze. Similarly, if we live in a cold climate, we have seen the trucks that salt and sand the streets after a snowfall to prevent ice from building up on the roads. In both of these instances, salt is acting to lower the freezing point of water, and changing what phase of matter the water is (i.e., turning solid ice into liquid water).
For the ice cream maker, because the rock salt lowers the freezing point of the ice, the temperature of the ice/rock salt mixture can go below the normal freezing point of water. This makes it possible to freeze the ice cream mixture in the inner container of the ice cream machine. For the salt spread on streets in wintertime, the lowered freezing point means that snow and ice can melt even when the weather is below the normal
freezing
If we live in a place that gets cold in the winter, we have probably seen trucks out spreading a mixture of sand and salt on the streets after a snowfall to help deice the road.
Do we sometimes dump ice cubes into a drink to help keep cool on a hot summer day? Have we ever watched the ice cubes melt and wondered how we could make them melt more slowly—or even faster? In this science activity we will get to try some different, common household substances to try and answer this question: What will help a solid ice cube turn into a liquid puddle the fastest?
This
basic chemistry project can give we some clues.
Question
● Which of the suggested test substances are soluble in water? ● Which of the suggested test substances are insoluble in water? ● Which of the suggested test substances makes ice melt fatest? Hypothesis
● The sugar and table salt are soluble in water.
● The sand is not soluble in water.
● The table salt makes iice melt fatest.
If we have ever made homemade ice cream the oldfashioned way using a handcrank machine, we probably know that we need ice and rock salt to make the cream mixture cold enough to freeze. Similarly, if we live in a cold climate, we have seen the trucks that salt and sand the streets after a snowfall to prevent ice from building up on the roads. In both of these instances, salt is acting to lower the freezing point of water, and changing what phase of matter the water is (i.e., turning solid ice into liquid water).
For the ice cream maker, because the rock salt lowers the freezing point of the ice, the temperature of the ice/rock salt mixture can go below the normal freezing point of water. This makes it possible to freeze the ice cream mixture in the inner container of the ice cream machine. For the salt spread on streets in wintertime, the lowered freezing point means that snow and ice can melt even when the weather is below the normal
freezing