Icy Science Experiment

Eva has been fascinated with the salt sprinkled on the sidewalks around town and is always asking about it so I put together a simple experiment to see the effects salt has on ice.  A few hours before we conducted the experiment I filled a small bowl with water and placed it in the freezer.  When it was frozen solid I popped it out into a small pie tin and we set to work.  (Someone was very excited about this!)

I let Eva sprinkle salt on the ice and after it sat for a minute or two we added a few drops of red food coloring.  The food coloring allowed us to see the cracks forming in the ice.

Eva also made an observation that the ice was smooth and slippery where the salt hadn't touched it but rough where it had.  That led to a discussion of how salt helps us walk on ice.  Now I think Eva better understands why there is salt on the sidewalk!