How can you burn yourself with salt and ice?

Question

I just dont get it...

Answer 1

Any time the chemical dihydrogen oxide (H2O) (more commonly called water, ice, steam, or clouds) is in the presence of any kind of salt, its evaporation points and its freezing points are both hotter and colder than without the salt.

Pure H2O freezes at 32°F (0°C) whereas ocean water freezes at 0°F (-12°C) so it is much colder when ocean water is ice than when pure water is ice.

Putting more salt into water than you'd find in the ocean can make its freezing point as low as whatever temperature your freezer is set for.

When you handle pure H20 ice, and it's as low as a hundred degrees or so below zero on either scale, the heat of your hand will usually melt the ice into water without much in the way of injury to your hand.

When you handle ice with any amount of salt in it at all, your hand will warm the ice to it's melting point, which will be significantly lower than the ice in your fast-food soft-drink, and can give you what is called "frost bite" or "freezer burn".

Whether it is called forst bite or freezer burn, what it is is a chemical reaction in your tissues that most people will call a burn, even when it is achieved with severe cold.

Some kinds of salts not only prevent water from freezing until the temperature is extremely cold, but can melt pure H20 ice quite rapidly by causing a chemical reaction that produces heat, and sometimes that heat can reach scalding temperatures.

The salts sold at stores to de-ice sidewalks is this kind of salt.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

i didn't either....but i have a nice big scar on my arm from it. that's all i care to know about it.