will salt melt ice more rapidly?

Question

some students tell me it will keep the ice from freezing. But my father sprinkles salt in the roadside during winter to "melt the ice"..

Answer 1

yes but only if the temperature of the ice and environment is warmer than -21degrees C. adding salt to ice or water creates an effect called freezing point depression. that means that when you add salt to ice it lowers the temperature at which water will freeze. so both you and those students are right. it can help ice melt or keep it from freezing. if you want, you can learn more about this at a web site i thought you might find helpful. http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa120703a.htm

Answer 2

Salt doesn't melt ice. An ice/salt mixture has a lower freezing point than just water. So, water freezes at 32 degrees F. But salt water would freeze at some temp lower than that, such as 28 degrees F (you'll have to look up the right temp). So, if it was say, 15 degrees, adding salt to ice would not melt is, but if it was 30 degrees, it would.

Answer 3

Early thermometers (non-metric) were calibrated at 100F(human armpit temperature) and 0F (melting temperature of a mixture of ice and salt). Salt was added to ice in antique hand-cranked ice-cream makers! Of course, zero F is well below the freezing point (32F) of pure water. Adding salt melts pure ice (or snow) by breaking up the ice crystals lowering the melting and freezing point of the salt/ice mixture. The mixture will remain melted down to a temperature of 0F.

Answer 4

Yes salt will melt ice. That's because the freezing point of salt water is lower then that of fresh water.

Answer 5

You can't freeze ice - because it's already frozen!

Salt will make ice melt, and will stop water from freezing unless the temperature gets really low.

Answer 6

Salt increases the boiling point of water and lowers the freezing point of water. A good site that I refer people to in order to explain the process is: http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/solutions/faq/why-salt-melts-ice.shtml

Answer 7

Salt disturbs the lattice structure of ice, hence weaken the bonds, there fore make ice melt more rapidly.

Answer 8

it lowers the melting point of ice from zero deg centigrade to -5 deg centigrade, so when the surrounding temperature is 0 deg , it still hasnt completely frozen yet. Thats because of the lowered vapour pressure of ice

Answer 9

may be no .asfar as iknow addition of salt to ice lowers the melting point of the ice to about -23.c

Answer 10

salt lower freezeing point of water
ex: from (0_-1.098)
so water freez slowly