You will need:
- Wooden or plastic
chopping board - Ice cubes
- Frying pan
Bet to see which method would make ice melt
the fastest and learn something new about the
solid state of water.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Before you begin, touch the frying pan and the chopping board. Make a note of which one is colder to the touch.
- Now, place 2 ice cubes on the chopping board and 2 ice cubes in the frying pan. Make sure the frying pan is not on the stove.
- Place them both side by side and observe which one melts the ice cubes first.
RESULT
As the frying pan is colder than the chopping board to touch, the ice cubes placed in the frying pan will melt faster than the ice cubes on the chopping board. As surprising as this may seem, the reason for this is simple. For an ice cube to melt, it requires a lot of energy which it takes from its surroundings. As a result, when placed on the metallic frying pan, the heat from the surface of the frying pan is transferred quickly into the ice cube aiding it in its melting process. However, wood or plastic is a bad conductor of heat. When ice cubes are placed on its surface, very little heat is transferred into the ice cube making it melt much slower than it does on the frying pan.
