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Making Hot Ice

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Materials

  1. White Vinegar - 4 Cups

  2. Baking Soda - 4 tbsp

  3. Pot

  4. Spoon

  5. Potentially useful tool: Talking Thermometer

hot_ice_experiment

Procedure:

  1. Pour the vinegar into a room temperature pan

  2. Add the baking soda one spoon at a time otherwise it can get out of hand

  3. stir until it stops fizzing

  4. turn on the stove at medium heat and boil mixture

  5. place the mixture into the fridge and take a bit of dried sodium acetate from the pan

  6. place the dried sodium acetate onto the plate 

  7. carefully take the liquid out of the fridge or else you may trigger the reaction

  8. pour mixture slowly onto a plate and watch as it forms hot ice

Add baking soda

backing_soda.jpg

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Add vinegar

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Formation of hot ice

hot_ice_formation.jpg

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Science behind this experiment:

Sodium acetate (the mixture) is a supercooled liquid. This means that it is in a liquid form even when it is cooler than the melting point. However, when you pour the mixture onto the plate, any dirt on the plate or other sodium acetate molecules on the plate can act as a nucleation or seed site. A nucleation site is a piece of material that another material solidifies around. An example of this is raindrops in clouds. Water vapor can nucleate around a piece of dirt forming rain. This means that the sodium acetate can actually be melted down and the experiment can be repeated.

hot_ice_science
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