Why Is Ice Slippery?

In Sydney, ice melts because it is warm out in the middle of the day (even in winter). This creates a layer of water on top that certainly makes it slippery. But should it be slippery at night or in a cold northern climate where the air temperature is below zero? Yes, because the pressure your skates apply to the ice actually lowers its melting point allowing you to glide along a thin layer of water.

Animation in this video is courtesy of VisChem (TM), Copyright 1995, Roy Tasker

For a more complete picture of the mechanisms involved in making ice slippery, check out this great article: http://lptms.u-psud.fr/membres/trizac/Ens/L3FIP/Ice.pdf

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ice
• slippery
• experiments
• science
• literacy
• freezing
• regelation
• pressures
• states
• of
• matter

[imamadmad1]

so, if the ice was REALLY cold, would it still be able to have the watery layer from the pressure or is there a point where it's too cold for the effect to be observed

[1veritasium]

@imamadmad1 turns out the pressure effect only seems to predominate above -3C however other effects maintain the watery layer. Check out the link in the description for more.

[Baboonaiih]

I love your videos but.... Vancouver? Really? Why not Toronto or Edmonton!?

[1veritasium]

@Baboonaiih I'm from Vancouver.

[GeorgTsabou]

But why does the ice stick to our fingers if we touch it?

[1veritasium]

@GeorgTsabou That means the ice is cold enough to refreeze water that melted from the surface.

[jjtheslayer69]

i love this shit

i could be watching jersey shore like the rest of america

but id rather watch this,

[munayata38]

@1veritasium isnt it the heat on your shoes make the ice watery to slide even though there's no source of heat except ur shoes

[BSeitert]

Would ice be just as slippery in space? In space you would put almost no pressure on the ice. Therefore there is no water layer that makes it slippery just pure ice?

[TiagoTiagoT]

So ice is not that slippery if the object resting on it is much lighter than a human?

[dsass600]

ahaha that girl is like cause of the ratio. ahaha

[Slampropp]

@VisCreed In my experience, trying to walk on skating rinks in the spring when the ice is starting to melt away and is covered by a film of water, it's a LOT harder to stay on your feet compared to the middle of winter. Now, I don't have any actual data on this, but it makes sense when you think about it; If a little lubrication can reduce the friction a bit, adding more should reduce it further (to a point.)

[VisCreed]

@Slampropp Yeah okay I was being an asshole but still. Temperature has nothing to do with (unless you associate it with the temperature increased on the ice through pressure acting on it thus making a liquid layer ontop of it allowing you to "slide".

Im pretty sure Derrick said the "slipperyness" of ce stays the same through the climate change.

[Fam0e]

@VisCreed No doubt about that! :) But there's a Swiss flag averywhere... i didn't count less than four... five with the lampion. Very swiss... in the middle of Vancouver (i guess) :)

Maybe the inkeeper is swiss?

[Slampropp]

@VisCreed To their credit, the 3 things you mention are all true. it really IS slippery because it's wet, and the water really DOES act as a lubricant, and the temperature really HAS an effect on how wet it is. None of them got the more fundamental principle, true enough, but why should an amateur be expected to? You can't chide people because not everyone is balls deep in physics.

In conclusion, don't be an asshole.

[VisCreed]

"Because its wet", "lubricating oil" ,"temperature"

Its frightening how people can be stupid!

Im 16 and in the foundation math group but even I knew that it was due to pressure!

No faith in humans

[VisCreed]

@Fam0e  Because Switzerland is AWESOME!!