Ask A Scientist Chemistry Archive

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.
-c. cartmilll

Answer:
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