We should keep trying something new and off the hook, which is not been done or tried before. So today going a little away from technology we will peep into a little scientific stuff. Today i'll tell you How to instantly turn water into ice by trying 'Supercooling'.
'Supercooling' is when you chill a liquid below its freezing point without it becoming solid. Try this amazing trick by following Mark's simple step-by-step instructions.
Things you'll need:
- Two 1 litre bottles of water (deionised water for car batteries works best, but you could use filtered water)
- A thermometer (optional)
- A clear mixing bowl
- Two buckets
- 8kg of ice cubes
- 3kg of table salt
- Towel
How to do it:
The experiment can sometimes fail if a bottle is knocked by accident. You can increase your chances of success by putting two bottles of deionised water in each bucket.
1.
Place a bottle of deionised water into a bucket and pack 3kg of ice around the base of the bottle. Leave a few ice cubes aside in the freezer, to use later. Pour 1.5kg of salt over the ice and top up with water until it fills the bucket to the level of the bottle's lid. Repeat the process with the second bucket and bottle.
2.
Do not disturb your bottles while they are cooling, as the smallest knock can start the ice crystallisation process. Carefully check the temperature of the water using a thermometer. You need to wait for it to cool down to -8C. This process will take around 30 minutes.
3.
Carefully take one of your bottles out of its bucket and check it is still liquid water. Place it on the table.
4.
Take the ice cubes you set aside and place into a mixing bowl. Now gently unscrew the top of your water bottle and slowly pour onto the ice cubes. Watch in amazement as the water turns instantly into ice!
5.
Now carefully lift out the other bottle of water from its ice bucket. Gently wipe it over with a towel. Then, holding it firmly by the lid, give it a sharp tap on the table. You should soon see ice begin to form at the top of the bottle and 'creep' downwards.
Why doesn't the water freeze at 0C?
Water tends to freeze at 0C but there needs to be a 'nucleus' around which the crystalline structure of ice can form. So filtered water can be chilled well below this as there are no impurities for ice crystals to form around, unlike normal water.
In this experiment, the ice cubes in the bowl, and the bubbles that form when you tap the bottle, act as the 'nucleus' to kick-start crystallisation.
Why does adding salt to ice water make it get colder?
When water and ice are mixed together some molecules of ice are melting and some of the water molecules are freezing.
When the temperature reaches 0C the two processes balance each other out in what is known as dynamic equilibrium.
However, salt upsets this balance. This is because salt dissolves in water but can't interact with ice.
The salt molecules start to replace the water molecules so there are fewer water molecules freezing compared to the number of ice molecules melting.
The water cools down below 0C so more molecules will freeze to achieve balance once again. The more salt you add, the colder the icy water gets.
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