Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Experiment: melting ice 
Name: c. cartmilll
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999
Question:
How would one set up a simple experiment using any household (at home) to see which of conduction, radiation or convection was responsible for the melting of an ice cube in

a)A glass of salt water at cold tap water temp.
b) A glass of fresh water at cold tap water temp.


Replies:
Conduction; try with insulated cups (Polystyrene foam) vs. noninsulated cups (Dixie paper cups). Radiation: I'm not sure.....maybe you should try covering the cups with either tinfoil or plastic wrap? Not sure what you mean here. Convection; I can't think of any good way to do this. If you stir up the water once in awhile you'll be doing work to the water, which will add some heat, which will slow down things (or at least affect them in some way).

Make sure you do all tests with covered cups though so that evaporation of warmer water doesn't evaporatively cool the water down (and reduce the mass of water, thereby making it "appear" to freeze faster - see previous question).

-dr topper


Click here to return to the Chemistry Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: February 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory