Salt, Ice, and Ice Cream!

On a cold, snowy winter day, you may notice huge trucks spreading a substance on the roads! These trucks are sprinkling salt to make our roads safer and less slippery! More than 20 million tons of salt is spread on the road each year! Today’s experiment explores the effect that salt has on ice!

For water to change phases and become ice, it must be at least 32⁰F (0⁰C). Ice can cause driving conditions to become unsafe and may even close schools! Once salt is added to water, it lowers the point that the water will freeze at from 32⁰F to about 28⁰F. Salt is able to impede the freezing process by impacting how the freezing water molecules form, and breaks ice apart! Once the freezing point has been lower, the temperature must remain colder for ice to freeze, meaning that ice will begin to melt more quickly!

Salt is a cheap, easy way to help make the roads safer to drive on! Salt also helps to create friction, the force when two things rub together, between your car’s tires and the slick road!

Today’s experiment makes yummy, homemade ice cream by using salt! See the details for today’s experiment of today by visiting: https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/icecreamrecipe.pdf