First of all I want you to know that I am not a scientist, but when I heard that salt reduces the melting time of ice, I knew that I wanted to test this with ice dyeing. For this experiment I used 2 fat quarters, ice cubes, a mixed red Procion and plastic plant containers. Each fq was presoaked with soda ash and crunched into a container with ice cubes on top. I used about 3 tea spoons of dye powder on each and on the left container 3 tea spoons of salt. To be certain that there would be no pooling of melted ice I placed everything into my kitchen sink.
After 3 hours I could not see much difference in how much ice had melted:
After rinsing and ironing I put both pieces of fabric onto my desig wall. The salted one is on the right:
I cannot say that the salt reduced the melting time of the ice. The pattern of the salted piece shows more white and has sharper lines, but is this the effect of the ice or just coincidence? I cannot say for certain. Guess that more experimenting has to be done.
7 comments:
Great experiment and I keep forgetting I have a foot of snow in my yard - MUST DYE!!
Hello Wil,
I am a chemist.
Ice does not melt slower with salt. It melts faster with salt, because salts lowers the temperature of melting ice. Because of the lower temperature the melting is faster. (faster transport of heat of the surroundings to the colder ice)
Groet Maria Cornelisse
(van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1608)
Hi Will, haven't visited your blog for so long. Your experiment surprised me. I though you would have more intense colors with the salt, Not much of a difference on your two pieces, but it is fun to experiment.
I was going to chime in about the same thing about the ice and salt based on my experience making icecream in a hand crank maker. You set the container with the liquid mix to be frozen into a combination of ice and rock salt, my understanding being that the salt accelerates the freezing.
What Maartje said. As a Canadian all too familiar with icy winter roads...we use ice to accelerate ice melting. You might want to re-work this sample...
The important thing is that is does seem to make a difference to the finished result - so the question is which do you prefer? I do a lot of dyeing but have yet to try ice-dyeing.
Beth has a foot of snow in her back yard. I'm in south west UK - and I've just spent the whole day sitting in the garden under blue sky in the sun!! Very unusual weather for this time of year here. If I want to do that ice-dyeing I will have to use the freezer!
Op de website van Paula Burch staat dat gemeld wordt dat bij gebruik van zout en Procion MX er meer 'kristallijne' structuren ontstaan. Paula heeft daar haar twijfels over. Ik kan me echter voorstellen dat door het strooien van zout je grotere temperatuurverchillen krijgt en dat dat effect heeft op het binden van de verf aan de katoen.
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