Why do they use salt to melt ice?
I have seen in TV that in western countries, if the road is covered with ice ( as snow fall is common there) , they are spreading salt over it.
Salt lowers the melting point of water .This means that if we sprinkle salt on ice, we can melt it. The salt dissolves into the liquid water in ice and lowers its freezing point.
We know that water attains solid form or becomes ice when the temperature reaches 0 degree Celsius When we add salt , that temperature drops.
Now the mixture of salt and ice have the freezing temperature at -16 degree Celsius. Or we can say water now will attain the solid form at -16 degree Celsius instead of 0 degree Celsius. So, till that temperature, water will be in liquid form. Thus , we can melt ice by adding salt.
I have seen in TV that in western countries, if the road is covered with ice ( as snow fall is common there) , they are spreading salt over it.
Salt lowers the melting point of water .This means that if we sprinkle salt on ice, we can melt it. The salt dissolves into the liquid water in ice and lowers its freezing point.
We know that water attains solid form or becomes ice when the temperature reaches 0 degree Celsius When we add salt , that temperature drops.
Now the mixture of salt and ice have the freezing temperature at -16 degree Celsius. Or we can say water now will attain the solid form at -16 degree Celsius instead of 0 degree Celsius. So, till that temperature, water will be in liquid form. Thus , we can melt ice by adding salt.
