Ice Lab Stacey Campbell James Wallace STEM Chem 5th hr September 19, 2013
Purpose: To determine if ice melts faster in freshwater or saltwater. Materials: Salt H20 (Liquid and Solid Form) Dixie Cups Timer Graduated cylinder Plastic cups Thermometer
Hypothesis:
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If we melt an ice cube in saltwater, then the melting time will be faster than if it was in freshwater. Procedure: 1. Use graduated cylinder to measure out 100ml of tap water. Do this step twice. 2. Fill two 8oz cups with 100ml of tap water each. 3.Pour one tablespoon of salt into the cup marked salt. Stir until the salt is completely dissolved 4. Zero scale, weigh ice cubes until you find two that weigh the same. 4a. measure temperature of water with thermometer 5. Place one ice cube in the cup labeled tap, time how long it takes for the ice to melt. Repeat for salt. 6. Record data in data table Data table & Graph
Type of water used Salt Tap
Ice cube melting time 4 min 40 sec 4 min 04 sec
Temperature before ice cube 22.4C 23.4C
Temperature after ice cube 17C 15C
Pictures:
Materials
Pouring the 100ml water into the plastic cups
Dissolving the salt into the water
Independent variable: In this lab our independent variable was the tap water/salt water.This is because it is the item in the lab that is being tested on. Dependent variable: In this lab our dependent variable is the ice(water in solid form). This is because for this lab the ice depended on the water and temperature of the water in order for it to melt. Other Variables: The other variables that we had in this lab were the spoon, plastic cup, graduated cylinder, thermometer, and timer. Experimental Group: In this lab we only had one thing that was the experimental group and that was the salt water. Control Group: Our control group for this lab was the solo cup that was filled with regular tap water. the only thing that we added to this control was ice. Conclusion: For this lab we were told that we had to determine if ice melts faster in fresh water(tap water) or salt water. Since the frozen lake water during the spring takes a long time to melt then salt water should increase the ice melting time. In this experiment we found out that the salt water melting the ice within 4 mins and 40 seconds and the tap water melted the ice in 4 minutes and 4 seconds. Our temperature of the salt water was 22.4C and the temperature after was 17c. Our temperature of the tap water was 23.4c and the temperature after was 15c. Staceys mother (who was a chemical engineer) told her that if we add salt to water it will cause a temperature drop, which in turn would slow the melting rate but increase the freezing point. This is why the ice caps at the the south pole and north pole never completely melt. If we could redo 5
the experiment we would have probably create more than one salt water cup and we would have tested more trials on the melting of ice in salt water . With every lab done there is sources or error. In this lab the sources of error that we would have encountered is the size of ice cube, the measuring of the salt and water, and the testing the temperature of the water with the thermometers.
