8Fe2 Freezing water

In this experiment you will be comparing how pure water and salty water behave when you cool
them down.

Predicting
1 What is the freezing point of pure water?
2 Predict the shape of the graph that you will get if you start with water at 5 ºC and cool it
down until it has all frozen. (Hint: you may have done a similar experiment with wax before.)
3 How will you be able to use the results of this experiment to tell which of the water samples
is pure water and which is salt water?

Apparatus Use Word 6.0c or later to

• Two boiling tubes • Two thermometers

• One large beaker • Stopclock view Macintosh picture.

• Crushed ice • Two water samples

• Salt

Method
1 Place the two boiling tubes in the large beaker and pack crushed ice around the two boiling
tubes. Pour salt on to the crushed ice.
2 Put water sample A into one of the boiling tubes, and water sample B into the other. The
boiling tubes should be about one-third full.
3 Start timing and measure the temperature of each sample of water at regular intervals. Decide
how often you will take the readings. Record your results in a table.
4 Check to see if the water in each tube is totally liquid, starting to freeze, or totally solid. Show
this information in the table.
5 Stop taking readings when no further changes are occurring, or when you are confident that
you have enough readings to tell the difference between the two samples. You will probably
need to take readings for at least 15 minutes.

Considering your results/conclusions

4 Draw a line graph which shows the temperature on the vertical axis, and the time on the
horizontal axis. Use a different colour for each water sample.
5 Describe the shapes of the lines that you have drawn.
6 Which water sample is pure water, and which is salty water? How can you tell?
7 What is the freezing point of the pure water that you used in this experiment? How well does
this figure agree with your prediction?
8 On a cold night in the UK, ponds and lakes may freeze over. Rivers freeze less often and the
sea has hardly ever been known to freeze. Explain why this is so.
9 What other tests could you have done to show which water sample was pure water, and which
was salty water?

[ predicting, observing, presenting, considering ]

Adapted from Exploring Science QCA Copymaster File 8 © Pearson Education Limited 2003