It is the weekend and the time most parties happen. The guests have started arriving when you realise that the six packs of beer are just sitting on the kitchen counter. You forgot to chill it. But not to worry, a little chemistry may just save the day.
[Image Credits]Pixabay
The Salt-to-Ice Trick
The "magic" works much the same way the salt help in breaking down the ice on the driveways; the freezing point of water reduces due to the addition of salt.
How does it help freeze my beer?
A little analogy is what we need here. Imagine that water is a middle-school dance floor.
The students may partner up, but that won't be desirable at room temperature (upbeat music). Instead, the dancers would whiz past each other in the mood of the song.
But when the song enters the slow tempo ( temperature drops), the dancers may move in, partner up and embrace.
The "embrace" of water molecules results in the formation of crystalline which is known as ice.
Salt, here, is that stern killjoy chaperones who we all hate in high school. They just enter the dance floor and keep each dancer from embracing. They just stand between you and your partner with their stern eyes forever destroying any hopes of an embrace.
Therefore the formation of ice is not something that will happen. The salt on the sidewalks reduces the water's freezing temperature from 0-degree Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit up to a temperature which is lower than the ambient air temperature- viola, there is no ice formation.
Confused?
Oh, yes! The ice can reverse freezing, how is it going to help my six pack as my guests need something cold?
That is true; you have been paying attention. The salt will lower the temperature at which the water freezes, that makes the runoff to be below 32 degrees (freezing temperature) but will remain a liquid.
All you want is an icy liquid to get that your six-pack cold isn't it?
Solid eyes only provide few points of contact to your beer bottles. The melted cold water then surrounds your bottles of beer. Recall water is an excellent conductor with great thermal conductivity. It will draw the heat away from your beer leaving you with that cold beer and maintaining your hero status in the eyes of your friends.
Go and be that hero.
Got any hero-making adventure of science? Let's hear it in the comment below.
References
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