How to Turn Water into Ice Instantly

 Overview 

Instant Ice is an easy science project for kids to do at home in summer. It is commonly known that water freezes at 0 °C and the transformation from liquid to solid take some time. Yet, that is not what purified water acts like. Today, we are going to show you some special characteristics of purified water. Kids are always having fun with this fabulous science project. They certainly will cry out, wow!

Age: 5      Time: <10min

 Safety 

1. Adult supervision.
2. Be careful, frostbite.

 Materials List 

• Bottled purified water
• Food coloring (optional)

 Instruction 

Step 1/2 – Add drops of food coloring into the purified water (must be pure water, not mineral water) and put it into the refrigerator below 0 °C. It commonly requires 2-3 hours. It is can turn it into ice in the refrigerator if it freezes for too long, while it also cannot demonstrate this experiment if it freezes for too short. So, be patient. You need to have some try to reach that exact point.

Step 2/2 – Two ways you can have fun with this experiment.
1. Carefully take out the bottle from the refrigerator and tap the bottom or side of the bottle and then you have instant ice.

2. Pour the freezing water onto the ice. Then you can see that the ice will also turn into ice instantly when it touches the ice.

 Troubleshooting  

How can I get pure water?

—Pure water can be purchased from the supermarket.

What should I do if the water already turns into ice in the refrigerator?

— Check if it is pure water. Minimal water is a lot more difficult to perform this experiment. If it is pure water, shorten the freezing time. The freezing time is different from the refrigerator to the refrigerator. Too much vibration can make the water turns into ice.
What if water can't turn into ice?
— It may be that the freezing time is not long enough and the water temperature does not reach below 0 °C. It is best to extend the freezing time. You also need to demonstrate the experiment immediately after taking out the water from the refrigerator. Otherwise, the temperature of the cold water can be rising to above 0 °C and the experiment will come to failure.

 Question to Ask 

1. In what condition does the water turn into ice?
2. Why the pure water in this experiment is important in this experiment?
3. In addition to these two ways of playing, can you play in other funny ways?
4. Can you perform this experiment with another kind of liquids?

 Scientific Description 

It is generally believed that water will turn into ice when it is below 0 °C under Atmospheric pressure. Yet the transforming process requires something acting as a condensation nucleus. Running water and mineral water contains impurities that can act as a condensation nucleus, so when the temperature of normal water reaches 0 °C, it will freeze. However, pure water, to some extent, has no impurities for ice crystals to form around, and thereby, it can remain liquid when below 0℃ under atmosphere pressure, so it can remain liquid below 0 ° C without freezing. We call this kind of water supercooled water.  Under certain pressure, when the temperature of the liquid has fallen below the freezing point of itself, the liquid still does not solidify. This liquid is called a supercooled liquid. The purer the water, the lower temperature the water can remain liquid. The high-pure water begins to freeze at as far as -40 °C. If you give an external force or some condensation nucleus like ice cubes, the supercooled water will solidify instantly.

 Extensions 

You can build your own iceberg in this experiment.

 Disposal 

Pour the liquid into the sink and do not forget washing what you have used.