It’s Melting! (science lab report)

INTRODUCTION: In areas where the is snow and ice it is important to make roads safe because car can slip and collide on icy grounds. Many things have been tried over the years to melt the ice and avoid accidents. Here are some things about the substances I tested. Sea salt is obtained by the evaporation of sea water, and is used for cooking and cosmetics. This salt contains magnesium sulfate, calcium, and potassium. It is not a healthy substitute for table salt, because it lack high concentration-an element essential for human health. Another salt I tested was Sodium Chloride, also known as table salt or halite. It is used to preserve some foods like fish. I also used Rock salt, which is mineral form of sodium chloride and also known as halite. Halite is used for managing ice. It is common for homeowners in cold climates to spread out rock salt after a snowstorm. Rock salt is also used in ice cream because it melts the ice surround the can holding the ice cream causing the ice to melt at a lower temperature and lowering the temperature of the ice quickening the freezing process.
I didn’t just test salts In this project. I also tested pepper, Rubbing alcohol, and cat litter. Pepper is used to add spicy flavor to food, and it gets that flavor by the piperine compound and it loses the flavor and aroma in evaporation. Rubbing alcohol can be applied as a cooling and soothing application. It is a cellular, volatile, and flammable liquid. Lastly, I tested cat litter. It is used to absorb moisture and the litter has clay in its ingredients. These substances might not be your first choice when it comes to melting ice but I tested them, and here its what I came up with.

OBJECTIVE: to see which out of 6 substances is the most effective with melting ice.

HYPOTHESIS: If you add sodium chloride to ice, then it will melt faster than any other substance because salt dissolves in water.

MATERIALS:
~2 cup cake pans
~teaspoon
~ruler
~labels
~pen
~sea salt
~ pepper
~Sodium Chloride
~Cat box litter
~rubbing alcohol
~mineral rock salt
~freezer
~a small clock

PROCEDURE ~
1.Got the materials… 3 different kinds of Salt, rubbing alcohol, cat litter, pepper
2. Got 2 cup cake pans, labeled each cup on each pan on each pan rubbing alcohol, cat litter, pepper, sea salt, Sodium Chloride, rock salt
3. Called one of the pans Group A, the other Group B
4. Grinded sea salt
5. put one teaspoon of each substance in their individual cups in Group B
6. Put water in each of the 6 pans in group A and with out put any of the substances, Just 1?4 teaspoon of water, I put Group A in the freezer.
7. When each substance are in their individual cups, I put 1?4 teaspoon of water in each of Group B’s 6 cups.
8. I put Group B, with sea salt, sodium chloride, rock salt, rubbing alcohol, cat litter, and pepper in the cups, in front of Group A in the freezer.
9. When both were solid, I took both pans out and repeated step 4 for Group A on top of the ice, which were already labeled.
10. I got a small clock to pay attention to time.
11. I used a ruler to measure how much water was in each cup, and noted the difference between Group A and B.
12. Started timing at 1:45
13. Every half hour I checked the water in each cup in Groups A and B
14. Put the times when each substance in each group melted.
15. Experiment ended at 5:26

OBSERVATIONS: Group B had thinner ice because when it was freezing the substances were added. Group A was purely water so the ice was strong and solid At first the clear Rubbing Alcohol and pepper cups were not melting but the others were and at the 1st half hour pepper had 4 millimeter of water and Rubbing Alcohol had 3 millimeter. When cat litter B had 1?2 mm, cat litter A had 1 mm. Although this happened, all the other substances in Group B were melting more quickly then group A. Rock salt B was the irst one to melt at 2:56 and sea salt B melted at 2;58, right after rock salt. . In group A the fist substance to melt is rock salt, the second one to melt was Sodium chloride.
In group B, the very last cup to melt was pepper, at 4:30. Cat litter, in both groups was very hard to measure because it was mushy, slimy and cat litter A was on top of the ice so it was very hard to tell where the water was. The cat litter A was keeping the water cool, so that is why it was the very last to melt and pepper B, which was black and brown had rose on top of the ice, keeping it cool also. The salt looked clear with the water, and it was hard to determine what was water and what was rubbing alcohol A. In group A the second on to melt was Sodium chloride.

CONCLUSION:
My hypothesis was incorrect because I thought it would be sodium chloride that would be most efficient for melting ice but it was actually rock salt. Sodium chloride is mainly used for preserving foods, and Rock salt is used to melt ice. Rock salt is applied to roads to reduce the freezing point on the road allowing it to not freeze at 0*C, and sodium Chloride hygroscopic properties making the salt effective for preserving. The reason for not using sodium Chloride on roads because a is because a concentration in the intermediate area of its use can have harmful effect on plants and smaller species. Rock salt has a lower density than sodium chloride. Since Rock salt B was the winner it is more efficient to put the salt on before the water or, before the snow so the ice can melt as quickly as possible. If I did this experiment again, I would put more water in the cups, and have bigger cups.
The question that this experiment brought up is If rock salt and sea salt are both obtained by seawater, why didn’t they tie in melting the fastest? And Why didn’t sea salt A melt as fast as Sea salt B? To get answers, I would need to test just rock salt and sea salt with more water and observe them every hour instead of every half hour and see if rock salt is still the winner. Then I would know if Sea salt has something else in it that Rock salt does not have. For both A and B sea salt I would just test those but put them both in the cups before the water and see if that makes a difference.