Does the color of a light effect how fast an ice cube melts?

Question

Do darker colors make an ice cube melt faster?
Or do lighter colors make an ice cube melt faster?

Answer 1

Shorter wavelengths pack more energy, so they can melt the ice cube faster.

In order of increasing wavelengths you have
purple
blue
cyan
green
yellow
orange
red

So yes you could say the darker colors (purple, blue, cyan, green) melt the ice faster than the brighter (red, orange, yellow) but you should take into account the absorbtion of the ice. Ice is bluish therefore it lets blue light through and absorbs it less... I guess you really need to experiment since there are competing factors in play.

Answer 2

Light doesn't melt ice cubes. Heat does. Being a temperature above 32°F (0°C) at normal pressures causes an icecube to melt, unless you're in the arctic of course. That's a special case because water is at it's triple point.

Answer 3

I'm going to assume that you mean that the light is shining on the ice cube.

If the source of light is really close to the ice, then redder light would melt it a bit faster, compared to yellow or blue light OF THE SAME POWER. That is because ice absorbs red light more. But mostly, it is going to depend on the air temperature.

Answer 4

I don't know about colored light but when I was in middle school I did a science experiment that had the same concept as you question but I didn't use colored light i used sunlight dim light and bright light from a lamp to see which one made it melt faster but just by cmmon sense I think darker light would make it melt faster then soft light because the darker something is the more heat it holds

Answer 5

Visible light mostly passes through ice and doesn't heat it, but *infrared* light is absorbed and melts the ice faster. Infrared means the wavelength is too long to see (beyond red). Incandescent light bulbs actually emit most of their energy in the infrared; that's why they're so inefficient. For an experiment, take an incandescent light bulb and one of those new fluorescent light bulbs of equal wattage (real wattage, not "equivalent"). See how much faster the incandescent works!

Answer 6

Yes. For instance, infra-red light will melt ice pretty fast. Light with a frequency of about 10^10 (a wavelength of about a centimeter), otherwise known as microwaves, will melt it pretty fast, too.

Different colors of light are electromagnetic waves with different frequencies. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum ) The energy of an electromagnetic wave is directly proportional to its frequency (energy = plank's constant times frequency), so higher frequencies have more energy. Thus, they have more potential energy to transfer to the atoms; i.e. to "heat" the ice. But one also has to consider the rate at which this energy is transferred to the atoms, and this will depend on the wavelength of the light.

Given that different "colors" of light have different energies and different wavelengths, it follows that they will heat ice at different rates.

Answer 7

Colors toward the violet contain more energy per unit, but I doubt if we have instruments accurate enough to determine the difference. Try it as an experiment.

Answer 8

Yes, definitely.

Think laser

Answer 9

Reds are hotter than blues- IOW, closer to infrared is hotter, closer to ultraviolet is cooler.
=

Answer 10

color does not matter, the amount of watts matters.