Question:
I am trying to find the freezing point of sea water.
Can I get some help here? It's my first time trying this feature.
Replies:
The freezing point of seawater depends upon it's salinity,
which is the amount of salt that it contains. Open ocean seawater
has a salinity of about 35 (no units are used for salinity
anymore, although you may see it called o/oo which means
parts per thousand or psu, which means practical salinity units.
Neither usage is now considered correct). Anyway, fresh
water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and 35 water freezes
at about -2 degrees C. The decrease is linear so that water
with a salinity of 17 freezes at about -1 degree C.
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.