Dec 19, 2007 5:43 pm US/Eastern
High School Student Puts De-Icers To Test
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Although temperatures above freezing helped to do a little melting Wednesday, there is still plenty of ice to deal with. Everyone has been getting a work out trying to clean this winter mess, but to maximize your efforts you need to know which salt works best.
But there is an answer to your ice removal needs thanks to a high school science project.
A high school student in Hadley, who studied the melting times of different kinds of salt as a science fair project, came up with a salt analysis. And with so much ice for all of us to manage, it's a study we all need to know about.
Joe Rogers has been working in the maintenance department at WBZ for over 20 years.
"The rock salt we use for the tougher ice that we have to chip up right away," he said.
Rock salt or sodium chloride is a different form of the same stuff that you put on your food but is it the best type of salt to melt the ice fast?
Tim Cooke is a high school student at Hopkins Academy in Hadley.
"We've tried a lot of different types of ice melts, and I was just trying to find which one was the best," Cooke said.
So he devised a science experiment called the Skydeck.
Also known as rock salt, the most popular ice melter, his experiment put it up against the melting power of magnesium chloride and calcium chloride, all purchased at a local store.
The glass beakers were labeled and Tim measured out 10 grams of each salt.
Sprinkling the different salts on the cubes, Tim tracked the time it took for the two ice cubes to melt completely.
"The calcium chloride is already starting to melt this ice. It works fast," he said.
In fact, according to Tim's study, the calcium chloride can beat the other two by a full hour. Rock salt, the most popular, works the slowest.
There's a lot of ice out there and it's definitely helpful to try to clear away the ice as quickly as possible.
Calcium chloride is also the only salt that's effective in temperatures below zero. The downside is that it's is the most expensive, and the ice can refreeze if it's not cleaned up right away.
If you would like to read Tim's full science report, click here.
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