Melting ice experiment Alexa Nagel 12-5-14

Which added material makes ice melt faster?

Background I chose this experiment because it’s based off of winter ice on the roads. I wanted to do this because we are experiencing winter right now.

Hypothesis If I add salt then the ice will melt faster compared to the ice with salt, sand, sugar, and just plain old ice.

Variables (Independent)What will you be changing? Salt, Sugar, and the sand (dependent) What will respond to the change? The amount of liquid remaining. (constants) What must remain the same? The temp, amount of ice, time in fridge with elements.

Description of experiment Get supplies (sugar, sand, salt, 4 bowls, tbs, grad. cylinder, ice cubes, and timer.) Put 3 ice cubes in each bowl. Measure 1 tbs of salt, sugar, and, sand, pour over ice, put all 4 bowls in fridge Wait 1 hour Pour remaining liquid in grad. cylinder. Record, and repeat steps 1-5. You do/redo the experiment 2-3 times because you want to get the right number.

Materials You will need Bowls Ice Sugar Salt Sand Grad cylinder Fridge

Data *temp 40 F

My Conclusion Which material makes ice melt the fastest? To find out which material makes ice melt the fastest I set up 4 options: ice with salt, ice with sugar, ice with sand and ice with no material. Ice with salt melted the quickest with sugar coming in second, plain ice was next and finally ice with sand. My data does support my hypothesis because salt was first with 28ml melted. What I’ve learned in this experiment is I know why salt is important for roads during winter. I didn’t experience any problems, But in the future I would like to find another material that’s comparable with salt.