Homework

HOT ICE

You will need:

-sodium acetate

-water

-saucepan

1. Dissolve sodium acetate in near boiling water. Do this until no more goes into the liquid

2. Stir constantly

3. When dissolved pour into glass

4. Cool in fridge

5. Make sure undissolved chemical stays in pan

6. pour into tray

7. touch it

“Hot Ice” Explanation:

There is no chemical reaction. The “hot ice” process is just re-crystallisation that happens to be exothermic. Exothermic means that energy is produced, in this situation the energy produced is heat. This trick works because sodium acetate is made up of tiny crystals

The boiling solution of sodium acetate becomes supersaturated which means that it contains more of the dissolved crystals than it normally could. (This is because we boiled the water)

When you touch the surface of the clear solution it begins to crystallise and you've made what appears to be hot ice! This is because the crystallised sodium acetate looks like ice and, since the crystallization process is exothermic, it feels warm to the touch.