why ice are slippery?

Answer 1

ice is complicated stuff and know one really knows but the most commonly believed theory at present and the best answer i can give is.

you probrbly asked lots of people this and, you might have been told it is because the pressure of the you the ice causes the ice under you to melt and this layer of liquid water makes the surface slippery and allows you to glide over the ice. A 100 pound skater gliding on one edge, for example, can produce a pressure of several tons per square inch on the ice, and when a solid is compressed under pressure a small amount of energy is absorbed by the solid. In the case of water ice, this energy can cause a small amount of melting.

But not much. Research into the properties of ice over the past few years says that even at several tons per square inch there is not enough melting to account for the slipperiness of ice.

Another hypothesis has been that the motion of you over the ice causes frictional heating that melts the surface of the ice under you. But this too is probably not the answer.

It turns out ice is slippery for a completely different reason. One that was postulated in the 19th century, and long forgotten about. Experiments on the properties of ice over the past few years suggest this long neglected idea is the likely origin of the low friction of you slipping on ice.

Water ice, it turns out, is extremely complicated stuff.

Water is a combination of Hydrogen and Oxygen combined into molecules. In each water molecule there are two Hydrogen atoms for every Oxygen atom. Water can exist as a solid (ice), liquid (what you drink) or a gas (steam). Which form you get depends on the temperature and the pressure of the water. As a liquid or a gas, water flows easily and has very low friction. It turns out, lucky for skaters, that the surface of solid water can also have very low friction.

At normal atmospheric pressure (what we experience at the surface of the earth) water freezes at a temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees centigrade, 273 absolute). This is the "bulk" freezing point of water. When ice cubes are melting in a glass of liquid water the temperature of both the ice and the liquid is 32 F. Energy absorbed by the mixture goes into melting the ice cubes while the temperature stays constant at 32 F.

At normal atmospheric pressure when liquid water freezes it forms a solid crystal with a hexagonal microscopic structure. This hexagonal structure is revealed to us in snow flakes which take on the shape of hexagons and six pointed stars. Ice in a skating rink is usually kept at a temperature of about 4 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit below freezing. The layer of ice in a skating rink is a huge crystal of solid water with a hexagonal structure.

Image yourself now as an water molecule buried deep inside the ice. You are completely surrounded by other water molecules in all three directions. You are locked in place. You can't move up or down, or left or right, or in or out. You can't rotate. You can't do anything but vibrate away.

But what if you were located at the very top layer of the ice?

If you are in the top layer of the ice, you have company in the frozen molecules underneath you, and to the sides, but not on top. So you are not completely trapped. You are actually able to move around some. Not much, but some; and a lot more than when you were buried in the middle. Because of this you are not quite a liquid, but you are also not rigidly a solid.

This top layer of the ice is know as a quasi-liquid-layer. Ice can be pretty cold and still have a quasi-liquid layer, with the thickness of the layer depending on the temperature. Experiments show that this layer exists in ice at temperatures up to about 10 C below the freezing point of water. As you warm up, and get closer to the freezing point of water, the quasi-liquid-layer gets thicker, and finally at 0 C, the surface can begin to melt and a true liquid layer can form. Below -10 C there is no quasi-liquid-layer and ice isn't particular slippery. At very cold temperatures the friction increases tremendously at which point skating on ice would be about as productive as trying to skate on sandpaper! It would be like trying to do cross country skiing at the beach, or pulling a dog sled through the desert. It wouldn't be much fun at all!

Answer 2

Water is a substance that expands on freezing. Because of this property, a small pressure applied on the surface will cause local melting. The resulting thin layer of water reduces friction and ice feels slippery. Makes ice-skating possible

Answer 3

When you step on ice, the upper layer of the ice melts due to the heat that is there in your body. As the ice melts and becomes water, this water acts as a lubricant on the smooth surface of ice and you will feel slippery.

Answer 4

Because the surface area of the ice is in contact with the atmosphere the atmospheres has got humidity and the ice also tend to melt this make ice slippery

Answer 5

Why is ice slippery?
Probably the answer is this: contact with solid bodies exerts pressure on ice ,thus causing it to melt. Since liquids are mobile (and have less friction ), where solids are relatively rigid ,solids tend to slide on ice,thus making ice slippery..Water spilled on the kitchen floor or rainwater on asphalt or concrete can create same kinds of hazards for walkers and drivers that ice can...:)

cheerio !

Answer 6

Ice is slippery because it makes a layer of water between any thing it gets in touch.
and since water has a property of sliding upon layers therefore the friction is highly reduced.
But when it gets in touchas slippery as it is ,it gets stuck as the friction increases due to the fall in the value of "e"

Answer 7

If you want to stand on or catch some thing you need grip.Ice is smooth,Hard and overall when you act to stand or catch the heat of the body is tranferred and ICE surface is filled with water because of heat which in turn loosen your grip.Thats why Ice and like things are slippery

Answer 8

ice is not slippery. It is only the wet surface and the melted water layer that makes the ice slippery.

Answer 9

Well if u go to see, even a banana skin is slippery.
It is sticky as well as smooth. Why do u slip when u step on it ?
The answer is b'coz there is less Friction between u & the skin.

Even with ice. It is smooth but not sticky.
The friction between your feet and ice is very less compared to other substances. Hence ice is slippery.

Answer 10

Walking on ice increases the pressure on the surface of the ice and melt a very thin layer of fresh water that "runs" on the ice below, making it slippery.

Answer 11

Because Ice is not actually solid. It is almost semi solid. The bonds between Hydrogen atom and Oxygen is perfect unless you take it out and make it in contact with air temperature which is obviously warmer than Ice ...so the bonds become looser and thus creating lack of friction which makes it slippery.


lol