Salt and Ice

So, after Tropical Storm Beryl came through we woke up Monday morning to more rain and wind which made going outside not fun.  Instead of doing our salt and ice project outside we did it inside. Very carefully. VERY. CAREFULLY.

Sunday afternoon we filled several balloons with water and froze them to make ice balls.  Today we pulled them out of the freezer, cut and peeled the balloons off and sprinkled with salt. Why you ask? Because the friction between the salt and ice create depressions or deteriorate the ice. And when you add food coloring to the ice ball it looks cool! And who doesn't love COOL!!

Kody and Peter-Leo getting started, by peeling the balloon off the ice.

This is one of Kody's after she added some color!

Kody did more pouring of color than of salt. I think she just liked using the pipet.

Peter-Leo checking out the hole.

For Peter-Leo, simply sprinkling salt and some food coloring wasn't enough.. he actually used the salt and water to "drill" a hole through the ice ball!

See! All the way through!!

 And honestly, that wasn't enough either... so he had to split the ice ball in half too!!

Part of the ridge that was created to split the ice ball in half!

 Here is a shot of the ice ball before it cracked in half, with to food coloring inside to show how it was formed...

...and... BAM!  Peter-Leo has cracked the ice ball in half..

All in all a fun hour long science project! And the kids learned that salt heat up the ice rather it lowers the temperature of it's freezing point of water! FUN STUFF!


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Michelle