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Ice Melting Rate Investigation

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Ice Melting Rate Investigation

A winter road crew needs to know which liquid melts ice fastest. Use the investigation data below to plan a fair test, interpret results and evaluate the evidence. All liquids start at 5°C; each trial uses one 20 g ice cube in 100 mL of liquid. Times are minutes until the ice has completely melted.

Plan a fair test

1.Which research question best matches the investigation?

How does liquid type affect the time taken for an ice cube to melt?
How does ice-cube mass affect the freezing point of water?
Which liquid has the strongest smell?

2.The crew predicts salt solution will melt the ice fastest. Write a testable hypothesis that links the independent variable (liquid type) to the dependent variable (melting time).

3.Choose the three liquid conditions used in the results. Which one is the control condition?

4.Name two variables, other than liquid type, that should be kept the same in every trial to make this a fair test.

Read the evidence

Three repeats were carried out for each liquid. Times are in minutes.

Liquid

Trial 1 (min)

Trial 2 (min)

Trial 3 (min)

Tap water

Salt solution

Sugar solution

5.Calculate the mean melting time for each liquid. Show your working and give each mean to 1 decimal place.

6.Which liquid melted the ice fastest according to the mean results? State the mean time and compare it with the tap-water mean.

7.The sugar-solution times are quite spread out. Identify the range of the three sugar-solution results and explain what this might suggest about the repeatability of those trials.

Explain and evaluate

8.Explain why adding salt can help melt ice. Include the idea of freezing point in your answer.

9.Can these results prove that salt solution will always melt ice fastest in every situation? Answer yes or no and give one reason.

TrueFalse

10.Suggest one improvement that would make the results more reliable, and explain how it would help.

11.Write a brief conclusion for the road crew using evidence from the results. Include the best-performing liquid and at least one comparison with another condition.