Sunday 23 June 2019

Effect on Melting Point of Ice: Melting of snow and making of ice-cream

The normal melting point of ice is 0°C i.e. at atmospheric pressure. When the pressure is increased, the melting point of ice decreases. like if if we press the ice it starts melting, this property is used by snow skiers, they press the snow to liquify it which act as lubricant.

The melting point also changes with adding impurities. When salt is added to water the melting point decreases below 0°C i.e. depression in freezing point. This property is used in melting of snow, as well as making of ice. How?
During snow fall, when salt is sprayed to snow the melting point decreases. In case of NaCl, the melting point (freezing point) changes to -7°C i.e. ice will start melting at a temperature of -7°C.
If surrounding temperature is -2°C, the snow (pure water) will remain in solid form but if salt is added, then it will melt.
The same principle is used while making ice cream or used for chilling the ice-cream.
the temperature of pure ice (let's say -10°) will increase rapidly to 0°C as less specific heat and it will become constant at 0°C till all the ice melt. So, this can't be used to make ice-cream. But if salt (NaCl) is present, the temperature of ice from -10°C will increase to -7°C at which it will become constant for some time till all the ice melts. So, in this way we can create a suitable temperature for freezing ice-cream.

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