hot ice experiment theory

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The illusion of Hot Ice

March 20, 2012 By Emma Vanstone 9 Comments

We love a science experiment that seems like a magic trick , and this activity is one of the best. We’re going to find out how to make hot ice .

Imagine saying to people, ‘I can make hot ice!’ They wouldn’t believe you would they?

As far as science theory goes, they shouldn’t, we know that in order for ice to exist, it has to be at 0 o C and that when heated it melts.

Note – this activity does not make ice, just something that resembles ice. It is NOT edible, so please discard the solution when you have finished experimenting.

How to make hot ice

To make hot ice, you will need

1 litre of acetic acid (white vinegar)

4 tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda ( baking soda )

Hob to heat the mixture

Pour the white vinegar into the pan.

Carefully add the bicarbonate of soda, half a tablespoon at a time and stir the mixture until it has all dissolved.

The baking soda and vinegar will fizz as they react together, which is why you need to add the baking soda slowly. You have now made a solution called sodium acetate . Carbon dioxide gas is also given off.

Simmer the solution on the hob until it has reduced to about 100ml. This should take about one hour. The solution is now supersaturated!

Once the mixture has reduced down, pour it into a jug, cover it and place it in a fridge to cool for 1 hour.

Once cooled, you can pretend the liquid is water to your friends and pour it out onto a surface. It should begin to crystallise straight away, forming towers of ‘ice’. It looks and feels hot because the reaction gives off heat. It is exothermic .

The great thing is you can remelt the ‘icicles’  to reuse when you want to perform the trick again! We put the jug in the microwave for 40 seconds to dissolve the crystals and then placed it back in the fridge for an hour.

If pouring isn’t working, try warming up your finger and gently touching the surface of the liquid. It should start to crystallise from your finger and spread outwards.

How does hot ice work ?

S odium acetate exists as a supercool liquid in the fridge, meaning that it is in liquid form below its usual freezing point . As soon as it is disturbed, it starts to crystallise. The crystallisation is an exothermic reaction which is why we call it hot ice!

Sodium acetate usually freezes at 54 o C, but as you have seen can exist in the supercool form below that temperature.

Uses of sodium acetate

• Sodium acetate is used in heat packs and hand warmers. Heating pads usually have a metal disc in them, which, when clicked, starts the crystallisation process, releasing heat. Hand warmers can usually be reused by boiling the pouch to melt the contents.
• As a flavouring in food.

Last Updated on March 15, 2023 by Emma Vanstone

Safety Notice

Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

Reader Interactions

March 30, 2012 at 12:08 pm

Very cool kitchen chemistry!

April 01, 2012 at 10:02 pm

This is neat – I bet my kids would get a kick out of it! Thanks for the idea!

April 02, 2012 at 1:25 pm

That really is cool. Congrats on being nominated in the Schooldays category of the Mads. *bows out gracefully* 😉

April 04, 2012 at 12:50 pm

Thank you, stiff competition! 🙂

April 05, 2012 at 8:49 pm

Thank you…I’m sure there is no need to bow out though. xx

May 15, 2017 at 12:53 pm

April 06, 2012 at 1:57 am

What a fun “trick”! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!! I hope you will share with us again this week!

March 20, 2013 at 2:56 pm

That is so cool…. 😀

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Make Hot Ice From Baking Soda and Vinegar

Hot ice is another name for sodium acetate (CH 3 COONa or NaOAc). It is the sodium salt of acetic acid, which is the key component of vinegar. Hot ice gets its name from the way it solidifies. A solution of sodium acetate supercooled below its melting point suddenly crystallizes. Heat is released and the crystal resemble ice so… “hot ice.” All you need to make sodium acetate and crystallize it into hot ice is baking soda and vinegar. It’s a great chemistry demonstration because it illustrates chemical reactions, supercooling, crystallization, and exothermic processes . From start to finish, the project takes less than an hour. Once you have the sodium acetate, you can melt and crystallize it over and over again.

You only need two ingredients, plus a pan and stove:

• 1 liter Vinegar (weak acetic acid)
• 4 tablespoons Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

The quantities of baking soda and vinegar are not critical so long as all of the baking soda dissolves. If measuring the ingredients isn’t an option, just dissolve baking soda in vinegar until no more dissolves, filter off the liquid using a coffee filter or paper towel to remove any solids, and proceed from there.

Be sure to use plain white (clear) vinegar and not cider, red wine, or some other colored vinegar. You can substitute sodium carbonate (washing soda) or sodium hydroxide (caustic soda or lye) for the baking soda. If you have access to pure sodium acetate (inexpensive online), you can skip the procedure to make it and go directly to the step for re-using it.

• The first step is reacting the baking soda and vinegar . Stir baking soda into vinegar a little at a time. If you add it all at once, you’ll basically get the classic baking soda and vinegar volcano and could overflow your pan! The reaction between baking soda and vinegar produces sodium acetate, water, and carbon dioxide gas: Na + [HCO 3 ] –  + CH 3 –COOH → CH 3 –COO –  Na +  + H 2 O + CO 2 However, at this point there’s too much water for the sodium acetate to crystallize.
• Next, concentrate the solution by boiling it. It took me about an hour at medium heat to reduce the volume from a liter to about 100-150 milliliters. Don’t use high heat because you may get discoloration (golden or brown). The discoloration doesn’t ruin the sodium acetate, but the hot ice will look a bit like you made it from yellow snow. You’ll know you’ve boiled off enough water when a crystalline skin starts to form on the surface of the liquid.
• Once you see a skin, immediately remove the pan from the heat. Carefully pour the liquid into a clean container and cover the new container with plastic wrap or a lid to prevent further evaporation. You should get crystals in the pan, which you can use as seed crystals for activities, but the liquid in the new container should not contain any crystals. If you do have crystals, stir in a very small volume of water or vinegar to dissolve the crystals. If the entire solution crystallizes, add more water and go back to the stove to boil it down again.
• Place the covered container of sodium acetate solution in the refrigerator to chill it. It’s also fine to let the solution cool to room temperature on its own, but this takes longer. Either way, reducing the temperature produces a supercooled liquid. That is, the sodium acetate remains liquid below its freezing point.

Hot Ice Activities

Solidification of sodium acetate is the basis for one type of hot pack , but it’s also great for crystallization demonstrations. Three popular activities are the “sea urchin,” “flower,” and “tower.”

• Sea Urchin : Pour the cooled liquid into a clear container. Use a toothpick or bamboo skewer to scrape a few sodium acetate crystals from the pan used to make the solution. Dip the toothpick into the liquid so the tip with crystals are in the middle of the container. Needle-like crystals immediately grow out from the center. Also, crystallization releases heat as chemical bonds form to make the solid. The final structure resembles a spiny sea urchin.
• Flower : Pour the cooled sodium acetate liquid into a flat dish (preferably a dark-colored one). Scrape one or more crystals from the pan and drop them onto the liquid. The crystals act as seeds . The hot ice crystals spread out radially and form structures that resemble flowers.
• Tower : Place a few crystals onto a surface. Slowly pour the liquid onto the crystals. The hot ice solidifies as you pour the liquid, forming a tower (or whatever shape you can manage).

Re-Using Hot Ice

Save the solid sodium acetate so you can use it again without going through the whole baking soda-and-vinegar process. Simply dissolve the hot ice in water and boil off the smaller amount of excess water.

Safety Information

Sodium acetate is a safe, non-toxic chemical, so it’s perfect for chemistry demonstrations. It is used as a food additive to enhance flavor and is a key ingredient in some chemical hot packs. The heat released by hot ice crystallization of a refrigerated solution doesn’t present a burn hazard. However, making hot ice from baking soda and vinegar does involve boiling liquid on a stove, so adult supervision is required. If you use sodium hydroxide in place of baking soda, heed the cautions on the product label.

• ChemEd Xchange (2019). “ Crystallization of Supersaturated Sodium Acetate – Demonstration .”
• Clayden, Jonathan; Greeves, Nick; Warren, Stuart; Wothers, Peter (2001). Organic Chemistry (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-850346-0.
• Seidell, Atherton; Linke, William F. (1952). Solubilities of Inorganic and Organic Compounds . Van Nostrand.

Related Posts

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Revealing the secret of 'hot ice'

By Zeeya Merali

20 December 2005

FOR most people, making ice is a simple matter of popping a tray of water in the freezer. But not for chemist Eun-Mi Choi and his colleagues at Seoul National University in South Korea. Sub-zero temperatures and novelty moulds are the last things on their minds. They prefer to make their ice by zapping water with electric fields – and they do it at room temperature.

“Ice existing at room temperature – ‘hot ice’ – makes the mind boggle,” says Denys Wheatley, a cell biologist who studies the effects of water on living systems at the University of Aberdeen, UK. “It just shouldn’t happen.”

Choi’s experiments earlier this year have ended a 10-year quest to find out whether hot ice can be made. But they have unwittingly sparked another mystery. According to Choi’s results, the electric field needed to transform lukewarm water into ice is surprisingly small. So small in fact that fields of similar magnitude are found in all sorts of nooks and crannies in nature, from cracks in rocks and clay particles to the crevices of proteins in our bodies. And the search is now on to find out whether hot ice really is lurking in nature.

The story of room-temperature ice began in 1995 with an accidental discovery by materials scientist Jacob Klein at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He found that organic liquids sandwiched between mica plates only a few nanometres apart could freeze at much higher temperatures than usual.

Soon afterwards it struck him that he might be able to create ice at room temperature by squashing water into a solid. So he spent the…

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Produce attractive stalagmite formulations in the lab

Hand warmers containing a liquid in a flexible plastic shell with a small, curved metal disc are commonplace. The warmer is activated by inverting the disc, which presents nuclei to support the formation of crystals from a supersaturated solution. Needles propagate out from the nucleation site and within a matter of seconds the contents have solidified. The process is exothermic, generating heat.

This effect can be reproduced in the lab to offer more control over the process and produce attractive stalagmite formations. 1

Source: © Declan Fleming

• 125 g sodium ethanoate-3-water (sodium acetate-3-water)
• Watch glass 
• 250 cm 3  beaker
• Stirring rod 
• Bunsen burner
• Tripod 

Preparation 

Weigh 125 g of the sodium ethanoate into the beaker and add 12.5 cm 3  of water. Place the beaker onto a tripod and gauze over a Bunsen burner and heat gently, stirring until the solid has completely dissolved. Place the watch glass over the top of the beaker to minimise evaporation and prevent dust particles getting in, which can nucleate the solution prematurely. Allow the solution to cool to room temperature. 

In front of the audience 

Firstly, allow some students to examine the watch glass and confirm to other observers that it is at room temperature. Place a small crystal of the original sodium ethanoate on the watch glass and begin dripping the solution from the beaker onto it. The solution will crystallise immediately allowing you to build stalagmites. When you pass the watch glass around for students to examine, they will be able to feel the heat of crystallisation. 

The process happens so quickly that if you are holding the spout of your beaker near the watch glass in an attempt to pour accurately, you can find that the crystals will race back up the drip to the spout, causing your stock solution to crystallise in the beaker. 

Storage tip 

A small Pyrex reagent bottle with a screw cap could be used instead of a beaker to store your solution. This is a more convenient way to store the solution over long periods and the contents can easily be redissolved by placing in a boiling water bath with the cap removed. 

Teaching goal

I use this demonstration when developing students' ideas of particle models, particularly with respect to heating and cooling curves and changes of state. While the demonstration is technically crystallisation from a supersaturated solution, it is useful as a model for freezing. There are many videos on YouTube showing the freezing of supercooled water but it is not trivial to produce a sample on demand for use in front of a class, 2  so this demonstration provides a suitable alternative. 

The key idea to stress here is that bond formation is an exothermic process. Many students will think that as a liquid turns to a solid it will get cooler because 'ice is colder than water'. With a clearer idea of the energy changes involved, they are in a better position to explain why pure substances do not change temperature during a change of state. 

The nucleation concept does not appear on science curricula but there are plenty of associated phenomena suitable for exploration in a science club. 

The nucleation of bubbles of dissolved gas can be demonstrated by the addition of raisins to carbonated water that proceed to 'dance' up and down as bubbles form and release from their surface. Despite being less dramatic than the Mentos/cola fountain, at this scale it is clearer to see that as the raisins are dropped in, they trap bubbles of air on their surface and these established bubbles are easier to enlarge with dissolved gas than initiating a new smaller bubble. The formation of streams of bubbles in champagne flutes also presents a particularly elegant way to examine this process. The use of champagne here is optional!

This resistance to the formation of small bubbles explains the 'bumping' seen in liquids heated in organic practical work and stories of scalds received from sticking a spoon into liquids superheated in household microwave ovens.

Sodium ethanoate is an irritant: wear safety spectacles.

1   This experiment is based on demonstration 14 in Classic chemistry demonstrations.

2   Peter Wothers was able to show this in front of a live audience only with the help of some assistants at the 2012 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. The demonstration of supercooled water can be seen at  http://bit.ly/12RcTvR , starting at 07:40.

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How to Make Hot Ice

Last Updated: January 15, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was reviewed by Anne Schmidt . Anne Schmidt is a Chemistry Instructor in Wisconsin. Anne has been teaching high school chemistry for over 20 years and is passionate about providing accessible and educational chemistry content. She has over 9,000 subscribers to her educational chemistry YouTube channel. She has presented at the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AATC) and was an Adjunct General Chemistry Instructor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Anne was published in the Journal of Chemical Education as a Co-Author, has an article in ChemEdX, and has presented twice and was published with the AACT. Anne has a BS in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and an MA in Secondary Education and Teaching from Viterbo University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 874,932 times.

How can ice be hot? When it's not ordinary ice. Using the same ingredients as a baking soda volcano, [1] X Research source you can create sodium acetate. By cooling this below its freezing point, you get a liquid that's ready to freeze at the slightest trigger. In the process of forming a solid crystal, it releases a burst of heat. And that's how you get "hot ice."

Making Sodium Acetate At Home

• Do not use a copper pot.

• You cannot use baking powder, which contains other chemicals that interfere with the process.

• This measurement assumes you're using 5% acetic acid, which is a common concentration for commercial vinegar. This doesn't need to be a precise measurement, though.

• If it does get very brown and cloudy, add a bit more vinegar and boil again.
• The sodium acetate starts out as "sodium acetate trihydrate," meaning it contains water. Once all the water around it is gone, those water molecules start to evaporate and the sodium acetate becomes "sodium acetate anhydrous," meaning "without water."

• It's a good idea to add 1 or 2 tablespoons (15–30 mL) of vinegar. The vinegar will help keep the solution in its aqueous state, instead of forming that crust again.

• If the liquid freezes during this stage, there might be a solid piece of crystal in it, or some other impurity. Add more vinegar, return to the stovetop, and try again. This is a difficult process, so it's rare that you'll get it on your first try.

• If this does not happen, there is a problem with your solution. Add more vinegar and boil again — or try the more reliable store-bought method below.

Using Store-Bought Sodium Acetate

• Sodium acetate is also sold as "sodium acetate anhydrous," and some vendors do not specify which form they mean. The instructions below cover both forms.

• If the sodium acetate does not melt, you've bought sodium acetate anhydrous. To turn it into sodium acetate trihydrate, add hot water while it's still in the boiling water bath. It will take about 2 mL water for every 3 grams of sodium acetate to fully dissolve the substance.
• Don't use all of your sodium acetate. You'll need a little for later.

• Other impurities can trigger the freezing if they happen to be the right shape. This means you can sometimes trigger it by touching it with a toothpick or your finger, but solid sodium acetate is the only reliable way.

Expert Q&A

• You can melt the solid "hot ice" and repeat the show by cooling it again. You can melt it easily in the microwave, since you no longer need to boil away any water. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 1
• You can make ice sculptures if you pour the solution onto a pinch of the solid crystals. The solution will turn into a solid when it comes in contact with the crystals, and will continue to solidify while you pour. The ice will soon tower up! Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1
• The home-made hot ice is more difficult to use and gives less impressive results than the store-bought method. If you have any problems with it, your best bet is to add more vinegar, boil away the water, and try again. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Do not touch the solution until it's cooled! Thanks Helpful 45 Not Helpful 13

Things You'll Need

• Sodium acetate trihydrate (or white vinegar and baking soda)
• Medium to large pot (steel or Pyrex)
• Clean container
• Ice bath (or refrigerator)

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resource/res00002026/bubble-volcanoes?cmpid=CMP00006775
• ↑ http://smile.cosi.org/cooking-with-chemistry-teacher-packet-and-classroom-activities.pdf#page=10
• ↑ https://youtu.be/g584hrAIMKc?t=40
• ↑ https://youtu.be/AedL_NCv1Pw?t=82
• ↑ https://www.raisingmemories.com/2014/05/homemade-hot-ice-sodium-acetate.html
• ↑ https://youtu.be/pzHiVGeevZE?t=60
• ↑ https://www.fleet.org.au/blog/hot-ice/
• https://www.raisingmemories.com/2014/05/homemade-hot-ice-sodium-acetate.html

About This Article

To make hot ice, combine baking soda and white vinegar in a large steel pot. When the mixture stops fizzing, put the pot on a stovetop and bring the mixture to a boil. Right when a crusty film starts to form on top of the mixture, turn the stovetop off. Scrape off the powdery crystals on the side of the pot with a spoon and put them in a separate container. Then, transfer the liquid mixture into a heat-resistant container, seal it shut, and chill it in an ice bath for 15 minutes. Finally, sprinkle some of the powdery crystals into the mixture to create hot ice! If you want to learn how to use store-bought sodium acetate for hot ice from our Biochemistry Ph.D. co-author, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Hot Ice Crystal Towers

  Secondary | Materials | Views: 65894

Did you Know?

• Sodium acetate or hot ice is an amazing chemical you can prepare yourself from baking soda and vinegar. You can cool a solution of sodium acetate below its melting point and then cause the liquid to crystallize.
• The crystallization is an exothermic process, so the resulting ice is hot.
• Solidification occurs so quickly you can form sculptures as you pour the hot ice.

Health and Safety: This experiment involves boiling solutions. Please take care when doing so and ensure you have adult supervision.

You will Need:

• 4 tablespoons of baking soda
• 1 litre clear vinegar

The concepts it illustrates are:

• Supercooling
• Crystallisation
• Exothermic Chemical Reactions

What to Do:

• In a saucepan, add baking soda to the vinegar, a little at a time and stirring between additions. The baking soda and vinegar react to form sodium acetate and carbon dioxide gas. If you don’t add the baking soda slowly, you’ll essentially get a baking soda and vinegar volcano, which would overflow your container.
• You’ve made the sodium acetate, but it is too dilute to be very useful, so you need to remove most of the water. Here is the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar to produce the sodium acetate: Na + [HCO 3 ] – + CH 3 –COOH → CH 3 –COO – Na + + H 2 O + CO 2
• Boil the solution to concentrate the sodium acetate. You could just remove the solution from heat once you have 100-150 ml of solution remaining, but the easiest way to get good results is to simply boil the solution until a crystal skin or film starts to form on the surface. This should take about an hour on the stove over medium heat. If you use lower heat you are less likely to get yellow or brown liquid, but it will take longer. Some discolouration is normal.
• Once you remove the sodium acetate solution from heat, immediately cover it to prevent any further evaporation. Pour the solution into a separate container and cover with plastic wrap. You should not have any crystals in your solution. If you do have crystals, stir a very small amount of water or vinegar into the solution, just sufficient to dissolve the crystals.
• Place the covered container of sodium acetate solution in the refrigerator to chill and await the amazing results!

« Back

Unlocking the Mysteries of Hot Ice: The Magic of Sodium Acetate Trihydrate

Table of contents.

In the world of science and wonders, there’s a peculiar phenomenon that captivates both the mind and the senses, often dubbed as “hot ice.” This paradoxical term might conjure images of ice cubes emanating steam or a block of ice too hot to touch. However, the reality is even more fascinating, and it involves a compound known as sodium acetate trihydrate. Let’s embark on a journey to unravel the mysteries of hot ice, transforming complex scientific principles into an engaging narrative accessible to all.

The Enigma of Hot Ice

At first glance, the term “hot ice” seems like an oxymoron. How can something be hot and icy at the same time? The answer lies in a unique chemical process that defies our traditional understanding of states of matter. Unlike regular ice, which is simply water frozen into a solid state, hot ice is the result of a crystallization process involving sodium acetate trihydrate. This compound has the extraordinary ability to exist as a liquid at room temperature and then instantly solidify into a crystal-like structure when triggered, releasing heat in the process.

Sodium Acetate Trihydrate: The Star Ingredient

To delve into the realm of hot ice, one must first become acquainted with its main protagonist: sodium acetate trihydrate. Sodium acetate is a salt derived from acetic acid (the main component of vinegar) and sodium carbonate (baking soda). When these two substances react, they form sodium acetate, water, and carbon dioxide. The “trihydrate” part refers to the three water molecules that are chemically bonded to each sodium acetate molecule, a key factor in its intriguing properties.

How to Make Sodium Acetate at Home

Creating sodium acetate trihydrate at home is simpler than you might think, requiring only vinegar and baking soda. Here’s a basic outline:

• Combine Ingredients : Mix one part baking soda with two parts vinegar. The reaction will bubble and fizz as carbon dioxide is released.
• Evaporate the Mixture : Heat the solution gently to evaporate most of the water, leaving behind a concentrated solution of sodium acetate.
• Cool Down : Allow the solution to cool slowly, and if done correctly, crystals will start forming.

The Fascinating Process of Forming Hot Ice

The true magic happens when you trigger the crystallization of supersaturated sodium acetate trihydrate. A supersaturated solution is one that has been cooled down so slowly that the liquid contains more dissolved sodium acetate than it would normally be able to hold at that temperature. This unstable situation is just waiting for an opportunity to release energy and transition to a more stable state.

Triggering Crystallization

A small disturbance, such as introducing a small crystal of sodium acetate or even just tapping the container, can initiate crystallization. The solution rapidly transforms into solid crystals, and in doing so, it releases latent heat. This exothermic process is what gives “hot ice” its name—the resulting crystal formation is warm to the touch!

Applications of Hot Ice

Beyond its captivating demonstrations in science classes and online videos, hot ice has practical applications too:

• Reusable Hand Warmers : Hot ice is used in reusable hand warmers. Triggering crystallization releases heat, providing warmth. These can be reset by heating them in boiling water until all crystals dissolve back into liquid form.
• Medical Therapy Packs : Similar to hand warmers, hot ice can be used in therapy packs for muscle relief or medical treatments requiring heat application.
• Food Preservation : Sodium acetate is sometimes used in food preservation for its antimicrobial properties.

The Science Behind Hot Ice

Understanding hot ice involves delving into concepts of supersaturation, nucleation, and exothermic reactions:

• Supersaturation refers to a state where a solution contains more dissolved material than it could under normal circumstances.
• Nucleation is the initial step in the formation of crystals, requiring a nucleus around which material can accumulate.
• Exothermic reactions are chemical reactions that release energy by light or heat.

Making Science Accessible Through Hot Ice

Hot ice exemplifies how complex scientific principles can be demonstrated and understood through simple experiments. It serves as a bridge connecting theoretical chemistry with tangible experiences, making learning engaging and fun. By exploring phenomena like hot ice, we can inspire curiosity and foster a love for science among people of all ages.

In essence, hot ice is not just a scientific curiosity; it’s a gateway into understanding the intricate dance of molecules and reactions that shape our world. It reminds us that science is not confined to laboratories and textbooks but is all around us, waiting to be discovered.

Hot ice stands at the intersection of chemistry and wonder, offering both an intriguing spectacle and insightful lessons about physical states and chemical reactions. By demystifying this phenomenon through simple experiments with sodium acetate trihydrate, we not only satisfy our curiosity but also ignite a passion for exploring the marvels of science in everyday life.

As we continue our journey through the vast landscape of scientific knowledge, let us cherish these moments of discovery that remind us of the joy inherent in learning and understanding the world around us. Hot ice isn’t just a chemical oddity—it’s a testament to human ingenuity and the endless quest for knowledge.

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Hot Ice Sodium Acetate

Hot Ice is the name given to a super saturated solution of sodium acetate and water. To super saturate basically means that more molecules are packed between the water molecules than would normally occur at room temperature. This super saturated solution can be prepared by heating the water up which excites the water molecules and lets more salt, sugar or sodium acetate in this case dissolve between them. Sodium acetate is actually a salt.

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Sodium acetate trihydrate is found in some hand warmers. Sodium acetate trihydrate is the same as sodium acetate only it is a hydrated version of it (has water in it). It freezes at 54C⁰ so it is usually solid at room temperature as long as it is not super cooled. At 15⁰C sodium acetate trihydrate has the perfect temperature to go from liquid to solid in seconds producing heat as it does this (45⁰C). An exothermic reaction is a reaction that produces heat. For example fire is an exothermic reaction. In hot ice the heat is released when the solution starts to freeze because in the process more heat energy converted than is need.

A substance becomes super cooled when it is cooled passed its freezing point but still remains a liquid or gas. This sometimes happens when pure water is cooled passed 0⁰C it stays liquid, but then when it is agitated it turns into solid ice right before your eyes in a matter of seconds. When super saturated solution sodium acetate is cooled passed its freezing point it will stay liquid as long as it is not disturbed. The solution can be disturbed by shaking, but the most reliable method is give the sodium acetate solution a place to form its crystals also referred to as a nucleation point. This could be done by just dropping in a piece of solid sodium acetate or something that closely resembles the crystalline structure of sodium acetate.

Hot ice will not become super cooled if it is cooled in the presence of a nucleation site so it will freeze just like normal. Like nearly everything super cooling has an opposite, superheating this happens when a substance is heated to or above its boiling point, but does not boil. Super heating sometimes occurs when pure water is heated in the microwave.

How to make Hot Ice

The main ingredient is basically sodium acetate, but that isn’t really something that’s easy to find at just any store. Unless you look for hand warms which usually contain sodium acetate trihydrate. I bought my sodium acetate anhydrous here on Amazon  for about $14 USD.

The difference between sodium acetate trihydrate and sodium acetate anhydrous is the former has no water molecules. The steps below describe how I turned sodium acetate anhydrous into sodium acetate trihydrate.

First put a tiny bit of water into a pot because you only need 1ml of water for about 5.3 grams. Sodium acetate is not toxic so you can just use a normal pot to heat it in. Just make sure you wash it well after you used it. Sodium acetate is actually used as a food additive in some salt and vinegar chips.

Heat up the water and slowly add the sodium acetate. Once you have dissolved all of the sodium acetate take it off the heat and pour it in to a heat proof container (something that won’t melt when you pour in the hot liquid) and close the container as quickly as possible. If the container is not covered the top layer of the liquid will crystallize and this will cause the liquid to freeze before it becomes super cooled.

The container also needs to be clean and have smooth edges so there is nowhere for the crystals to form. Once it is cool to the touch it will be ready to use. All you have to do is to initiate the solidification of the liquid by adding one of the left over crystals. When you want to reuse the solid crystals just heat it up until all of it has melted and then cool it down again. You can keep reusing it as long as you don’t contaminate it and add a little water now and again to compensate for the lost water due to evaporation during the heating process.

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Now what to do with the end product, well it helps to use your imagination, but you could make sculptures or use it for magic tricks impressing family and friends. To make a sculpture put a solid crystal on a plate and then pour the hot ice on the crystal and watch the stream of liquid solidify on contact. This experiment also makes a good magic trick because the liquid looks like water, but when it’s brought into contact with a solid sodium acetate crystal it freezes. This can look quite impressive.

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“Hot ice” experiment

How to make hot ice at home

Have you ever seen how a salt heater works? You just press it - and the cap­sule with flu­id heats up and turns sol­id! Strange­ly enough, this heater works by us­ing ice - only hot ice.

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

• Be care­ful when work­ing with heat­ing de­vices.
• Ob­serve safe­ty rules when work­ing with these sub­stances: wear pro­tec­tive gloves, glass­es and mask.

Warn­ing! Only un­der adults su­per­vi­sion.

Reagents and equip­ment:

• bak­ing soda (sodi­um bi­car­bon­ate, 77 g);
• 9% so­lu­tion of acetic acid (662 ml);
• wa­ter (51 ml);
• glass con­tain­er;

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Sprin­kle bak­ing soda into the saucepan and pour vine­gar over it. Stir thor­ough­ly. Put the re­sult­ing so­lu­tion on the hot plate and evap­o­rate un­til it turns dry, and try to break up the lumps of the re­sult­ing pow­der . Then put the pow­der in the glass con­tain­er, add wa­ter and heat in a wa­ter bath un­til it dis­solves com­plete­ly. Move the re­sult­ing so­lu­tion to the beaker and al­low to cool. Touch with your fin­ger. Ob­serve the for­ma­tion of crys­tals and the re­lease of heat.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

In the re­ac­tion of acetic acid and sodi­um bi­car­bon­ate, sodi­um ac­etate forms. It has a very in­ter­est­ing prop­er­ty–it dis­solves in its own crys­tal­lized wa­ter when heat­ed. A sat­u­rat­ed so­lu­tion forms, which when it cools is very un­sta­ble and crys­tal­lizes from any im­pact, for ex­am­ple the touch of a fin­ger.

How­ev­er, in our ex­per­i­ment we dried the sodi­um ac­etate out com­plete­ly, so it was eas­i­er to cal­cu­late the amount of wa­ter need­ed. This is so crys­tal hy­drate forms–a sol­id salt with wa­ter mol­e­cules in a crys­tal lat­tice. For ev­ery 100 g of sodi­um ac­etate , around 66 g of wa­ter is re­quired.

NaH­CO₃ + CH₃­COOH = CH₃­COONa + CO₂ + H₂O

CH₃­COONa•3H₂O(sol­id) = CH₃­COONa(so­lu­tion)

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Uses for sodium acetate, types of autoclaves, what is the importance of buffers in pharmacy, what is the difference between a vial & an ampule, calcium carbonate and seashells, an explanation of sodium acetate & hot ice.

“Hot ice” refers to a popular chemical demonstration in which a solution of sodium acetate dissolved in water and placed in a freezer instantly solidifies when poured from its container or when a single crystal of solid sodium acetate is dropped into the solution. The solidification process releases heat and thus gives the appearance of the formation of hot ice. Chemistry instructors use this to demonstrate the phenomenon of supersaturation, or the ability of some solutions to contain more dissolved material than they normally should.

Ionic Compounds

In chemistry, the term “compound” refers to a material comprised of more than one chemical element. For example, table salt, also known as sodium chloride, contains sodium and chlorine atoms. When the compound contains both a metal and a nonmetal--as distinguished on the periodic table of the elements--chemists refer to the compound as “ionic.” Some ionic compounds dissolve in water, and during the dissolution process the positively charged metal, called a cation, separates from the negatively charged nonmetal, called an anion. The process of precipitation represents the opposite of this process; that is, the cation and anion combine to form solid crystals in the solution.

Chemists describe the ability of a compound to dissolve in water as solubility. By definition, the compound present in lesser quantity represents the solute, and the compound present in greater quantity represents the solvent. In the case of a solid dissolving in a liquid, the liquid usually qualifies as the solvent. Generally, chemists state solubility in units, such as grams per liter, which means “grams of solute that will dissolve in 1 l of solvent,” or “grams per 100 ml.” Saturation occurs when the maximum amount of solute has dissolved in a given amount of solvent. Some compounds exhibit inherently higher solubility than others, but in all cases the solubility varies with temperature. Generally, the higher the temperature, the more solute will dissolve in a given amount of solvent. The process of oversaturating, or “supersaturating” solutions hinges on the manipulation of temperature.

Supersaturation

The phenomenon of supersaturation occurs when the amount of solute dissolved in a given amount of solvent exceeds the saturation point. Scientists do not fully understand the mechanism by which solutions become supersaturated. Precipitation requires the formation of a small solid crystallite in the solution, a process called “nucleation.” After the crystallite forms, a second process, known as growth, enlarges the crystallites to the macroscopic level such that they can be observed and isolated. But growth does not occur without nucleation, and some solutes under certain conditions resist this process. Nucleation tends to require a “rough” surface on which to initiate. The rough surface may be an impurity, such as dust particles, or a scratch on the inside of the glass container in which the solution resides. Alternatively, an experimenter can initiate nucleation deliberately by adding a single, small crystal of the compound being precipitated. Consequently, most instructions for the hot ice demonstration call for adding a few grains of solid sodium acetate to the supersaturated solution to induce crystallization.

Sodium Acetate

Sodium acetate is an ionic compound consisting of sodium cations, Na(+), and acetate ions, C2H3O2(-). Like most acetates, it exhibits high solubility in water: 76 g dissolves in 100 ml at 0 degrees C. The solubility, however, increases substantially at higher temperature. The hot ice demonstration calls for creating a saturated solution of sodium acetate in hot water, then placing the solution in a freezer. As the solution cools and approaches 0 degrees C, the concentration of sodium acetate will remain above 76 g per 100 ml, i.e., the solution will be supersaturated.

The precipitation of a solid from a solution results in decrease in the disorder of the system. That is, in the solution the ions move freely in random directions and therefore exhibit high disorder. When the ions combine to form solid crystallites, their freedom of motion becomes restricted. Scientists describe this as a decrease in the entropy, or disorder, of the system. The laws of thermodynamics stipulate that for a process exhibiting a decrease in entropy to occur spontaneously, such as the precipitation of a solid from a solution, the process must also liberate heat. Consequently, the introduction of a solid crystallite of sodium acetate will warm itself as the sodium acetate precipitates from solution.

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• Journal of Chemical Education: Crystallization of Supersaturated Sodium Acetate
• Elmhurst College: Introduction to Ionic Compounds
• Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.: Material Safety Data Sheet - Sodium Acetate
• Green River Community College: Thermodynamic Prediction of Precipitation Reactions

Making Hot Ice

Water solidifies or turns to ice at zero degrees centigrade. This experiment makes something that looks just like ice but forms at room temperature and gives off heat. The experiment involves heating solutions on the cooker hob – be very careful, and ask an adult to help if necessary.

Making Sodium Acetate

Pour the solution into a very clean jam jar and cover it, and allow it to cool. This is a supersaturated sodium acetate solution. A saturated solution is one that contains as much of a substance that can be normally dissolved in it at room temperature; a supersaturated solution is made by dissolving in more of the substance, usually by heating the solution.

The hot ice can be melted on the cooker or in the microwave and reused – do this very carefully, as it will become hot.

What Is Sodium Acetate Used For?

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Hot Ice Science Experiment

You won’t believe how easy it is to whip up this hot ice science experiment! Just like all of our favorite science projects for kids , you just need a few simple supplies from your pantry: vinegar, baking soda and water.

The prep is quick and simple but the results are pure magic! Your kids are going to want to repeat this science experiment over and over again.

Grab 30 easy-to-follow science experiments kids will beg to repeat (plus a no prep science journal to keep track of their results!) in our shop !

Getting Ready

To prep the science experiment, I gathered a few common supplies:

• 4 cups of white vinegar (acetic acid)
• 4 tablespoons of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
• A glass measuring cup or mason jar (make sure it’s heat safe glass)

Making Hot Ice

After I collected the supplies, my kids measured 4 cups of vinegar and poured it into a medium-sized pot.

Then they took turns adding 4 tablespoons of baking soda (one tablespoon at a time) to the pot.

The sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and acetic acid (vinegar) fizzed like crazy forming sodium acetate.

NOTE: The key is to add the baking soda slowly so it doesn’t erupt over the edges of your pot.

Next, we stirred the mixture until all the baking soda dissolved and stopped fizzing.

Then we slowly boiled the solution over medium-low heat for a little over an hour to remove the extra water.

The solution reduced by about 75% so there was just 3/4 cup remaining. I could see white powdery crystals forming on the sides of the pot near the top of the solution when the solution.

NOTE: If you boil your solution at a higher temperature it may turn yellow-brownish but don’t worry, the experiment will still work!

Next, I poured the concentrated sodium acetate into a glass pyrex measuring cup and placed it in the fridge to cool and scraped a little bit of the dried sodium acetate powder off the inside of the pot to use later.

After about 30-45 minutes, the solution was cool enough to turn into ice.

I grabbed my glass dish and placed a small pile of the sodium acetate powder from the pot in the center.  This would act as a seed for the crystals to start forming.

I very carefully took the cooled solution out of the fridge because any bump could start the crystallizing process.

I began pouring the solution very slowly into the pan and crystals began instantly forming.

We all gasped, it was like magic!

As soon as the clear liquid hit the plate white crystals would form like tiny fireworks.  I continued to pour and the liquid crystallized forming a solid as soon as it touched the growing “ice”.

The kids wanted a really tall crystal tower so I poured as slowly as I could.

It kept growing…

and growing.

In the end it was over 6 inches tall!

Of course we all just had to touch it. It was hard like ice but was hot!

NOTE: This form of sodium acetate while non-hazardous can irritate skin and eyes  just like vinegar can.  So be careful when handling the crystal.  Both of my kiddos ended up crumbling the crystal and didn’t have any reaction but I imagine it wouldn’t feel too good if your kiddo had a cut on his/her hands.

Once you are done creating and exploring the crystallized salt you can remelt it to use again and again.

We ended up repeating the experiment a few more times and every time the cooled solution was ready, the kids came running with excitement!

• After explaining nucleation, ask your students if they can think of any other processes that begin with nucleation. (Hint: rock candy, borax crystals, clouds and carbon dioxide bubbles in soda.)
• Ask students if they can think of other reactions that release heat like hand warmers and burning candles.
• Try adding a drop of food coloring to see if you can make colored crystals.

The Science Behind Hot Ice

The sodium acetate solution in the refrigerator is what is called a supercooled liquid .  That means the sodium acetate is in liquid form below its usual melting point.

Once you touch, bump, or add a small crystal that is not liquid, crystallization will begin and the liquid will change to a solid.

When the molecules in the solute (sodium acetate) are in a solution, they normally are surrounded by a solvent (in this case water molecules).

Occasionally, a few solute molecules will bump into each other and stick together for a little while but they will eventually break apart.

If enough solute molecules stick together, they can overcome the forces in the solvent that would normally break the solute molecules apart.

When that happens, the clump of solute molecules serves as a seed (or nucleation site) for other solute molecules to cling to so the crystallization process can take off again.

The sodium acetate powder we placed on the plate acted as a nucleation site for the dissolved sodium acetate in the solutions.

The crystallizing sodium acetate releases energy in the form of heat and is an example of an exothermic process. Sodium acetate is often used in hand warmers as it release heat when crystallizing!

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This can be a bit of a tricky experiment, but when it works, it’s fantastic! Combine vinegar and baking soda to make ‘hot ice’. Warning: boiling water involved #adultsupervision

What you need:

Vinegar, baking soda, saucepan, jug, bowl

What to do:

• Put 4 cups (1 L) of white vinegar into a saucepan. Then slowly add 3 tablespoons (60 mL) of baking soda, not letting the pot bubble over.
• Heat the saucepan on the stove and boil the solution. You want to remove most of the water from the mixture, until the solution is reduced to about 100 mL. This may take about an hour. It is ready when a thin crystal film starts to form on the surface of the liquid. If this film starts to form and you have too much liquid, add extra vinegar to react with excess baking soda.
• As soon as the solution is ready, pour it into an empty jug, cover it to prevent further evaporation, and put it in the fridge to cool to room temperature or below (which should take about an hour). The solution should be clear and might be yellow. If there are crystals in the jug, they should be removed or dissolved before cooling. Stirring or adding a tiny bit of extra vinegar can help dissolve crystals while the solution is still hot.
• As the saucepan cools, the residue left on the bottom should crystallise. Scrape out the crystals and put them in a dish or container for later use.
• Put a single crystal in the bottom of a dish. Carefully take the jug and slowly pour it onto the crystal. The solution should spontaneously crystallise. If you pour slowly and carefully you can make a tower.
• Once the solution has crystallised, it can be melted by heating it in the microwave, preferably in a covered container to prevent evaporation. The liquid can then be cooled and you can continue to play around with crystallisation.
• This experiment involves boiling water and using a stove. Adult supervision is required.
• The substance produced, sodium acetate, is not toxic, although it isn’t edible and is mildly alkaline. Avoid getting it in your eyes. Wash your hands and equipment after use.

Troubleshooting

• If the solution remains liquid and does not crystallise, it may need to be boiled down further. Adding a bit of extra vinegar might also help, especially if it fizzes when you add the vinegar (indicating unreacted baking soda).
• If you get a sludge, add more vinegar to dissolve it and try boiling down again.
• Avoid getting any dust in your solution, as it could cause spontaneous crystallisation when you cool it.
• It may help to test the solution by pouring a small portion into a spoon and adding a crystal to that spoon before attempting to use the whole solution.

The science behind it

Vinegar is a mixture of acetic acid and water. Baking soda is also called sodium carbonate, which is a base. When you mix baking soda and vinegar together, the acid and base react, creating carbon dioxide, water, and sodium acetate. The carbon dioxide creates fizz and bubbles away, leaving behind a mixture of sodium acetate and water. When you boil the mixture, you remove the water but not the sodium acetate, which increases the concentration of sodium acetate in this mixture. Here we make sodium acetate trihydrate (which has three parts water for each part sodium acetate), which at room temperature likes to form solid crystals. The crystals will dissolve in water, which is why we have to boil away all the excess water. Sodium acetate trihydrate melts above 58 degrees Celsius, which means it is a liquid when it is hot. If you remove all the water you get anhydrous sodium acetate, which forms a white powder rather than crystals. Some may have formed on the side of the saucepan during boiling. When you cool the sodium acetate trihydrate in the fridge, it remains a liquid despite being below its freezing point. This phenomenon is supercooling. The liquid is trying to freeze, but whenever a tiny microscopic crystal forms spontaneously it usually dissolves again before it can grow bigger. If a larger crystal (or any suitable disturbance) is added, this seeds the crystallisation and allows the whole solution to crystallise. When the crystals form they are warm to the touch. This is because the crystallisation is exothermic, meaning it releases energy in the form of heat. Sodium acetate trihydrate is used in heat packs. The liquid sodium acetate is supercooled in the fridge. A metal disk is pushed to cause crystallisation, which releases heat. The heat pack can then be ‘recharged’ by heating it to melt the sodium acetate then cooling it in the fridge, and the heat pack can be reused.

Back to   Home Science  activities.

—this homescience activity written by FLEET PhD candidate Bernard Field , Monash

admin 31 Oct 2020 Home Science , Physics at random

British Science Week: Home science experiment – making hot ice

by How It Works Team · 14/03/2016

With this experiment, we will show that a substance could be created that was a liquid at room temperature but, when it was disturbed, would immediately crystallise and form what is known as hot ice.

Hot ice is an amazingly cool substance and the ingredients required are easy to obtain. However, it is difficult to make, and you probably won’t get it right on your first attempt, but don’t give up hope. You can either re-melt any failed hot ice or start again, making sure to follow the method carefully.

This is a great experiment to do at home and an even better one to do at school. You can directly see the effects of crystallisation and there’s plenty of science embedded into the fun of seeing hot ice in action. If you do replicate our experiment, make sure you send us some photos on Facebook  or Twitter  so we can see how it went!

You will need

1 litre of clear vinegar 4 tablespoons of baking soda Steel saucepan Container

Hot ice experiment – step 1

First, a litre of clear store-bought vinegar must be measured out. This must be clear, as brown vinegar contains impurities that will prevent the experiment from working. Next, you need to add about three to four tablespoons of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to the vinegar. This has to be done slowly, as the reaction can make the liquid explode over the side of the container. Stir this until all the baking soda is dissolved and then put the mixture on to the hob to boil.

Hot ice experiment – step 2

You need to get rid of about 90% of the liquid, so leave it to boil for over 30 minutes. You’ll start to notice a white substance on the side of the pan. This is sodium acetate, and a bit of this needs to be saved for later use. Eventually, a crust (sodium acetate anhydrous) will begin to form on the liquid. At this point, take it off the boil and transfer it into a container. This must be immediately covered to prevent the substance crystallising. You then need to cool it, so place it in an ice bath for 15 minutes or a fridge for a bit longer.

Hot ice experiment – step 3

The liquid needs to cool below room temperature. This makes it into a supercool liquid that will exhibit the characteristics of hot ice. Once it’s cooled, you can take the lid off and put some of the white sodium acetate collected earlier in the liquid.

Hot ice experiment – step 4

The points where sodium acetate is introduced will begin to crystallise. After a few seconds the entire liquid will appear to freeze. However, when touched, the substance is hot and not cold because the process of crystallisation here is exothermic, so heat is given off as the liquid solidifies. So, what’s happened in this experiment?

Hot ice experiment – conclusion

Almost every substance has a freezing point, but for something to solidify the molecules must rearrange from a liquid to a solid or crystal arrangement. However, hot ice, or sodium acetate trihydrate, is a supercool liquid where the molecules do not rearrange until they are disturbed, in this case by introducing sodium acetate. Hot ice melts at 58 degrees Celsius and is a crystalline solid at room temperature, allowing this effect to be produced as the baking soda and vinegar are heated. The unarranged molecular structure results in the occurrence of this crystallisation effect. You can re-use your hot ice by adding vinegar until the solid crystals are fully dissolved and repeating our method again.

Hot ice equation

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Hot Ice For Summer

Creating Hot Ice: A Great STEM Experiment For Summer

There’s a Dad joke waiting in this project.  Make sure to grab it while you can!

“Son, it’s been so hot this summer that even the ICE is hot!”  

You can buy ice in the supermarket but hot ice you’ll have to make yourself.  Making hot ice is an easy fun experiment three to eight-year-old  kids can try with ingredients you have at home.  It takes about  1-2 hours  to conduct the experiment.    Your children will be amazed as the “ice” forms yet isn’t cold at all!

Hot ice is used in hand   warmers, heating pads, for a buffer in laboratory settings, and for pickling and tanning of food.  It’s chemical name is sodium acetate.

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Supplies Needed

• A heat safe measuring jar or glass cup  
• 4 Cups of white vinegar which is  acetic acid
• 4 Tablespoons of baking soda which is  sodium  bicarbonate
• Hot plate  
• A spoon or spatula
• A pot or saucepan  (do not use a copper pot)

What Mystery Are We Solving?

Make hot ice and when you put your hand in the liquid the hot ice is formed around your fingers. It looks like your fingers are frozen, but it is hot to the touch.   

How does to everyday ingredients create ice that is hot to the  touch ? Isn’t ice supposed to be cold?

Safety Issues

Although young kids can create their own hot ice, adult supervision is recommended when the liquid is boiled.   

Hot ice isn’t the same as dry ice! Dry ice may cause severe burns when touched but hot ice is mostly harmless. For some people, hot ice may  irritate skin and eyes in the same manner vinegar would.  

How To Make Hot Ice

• Pour 4 cups of white vinegar into the saucepan or pot.
• Slowly add 4 tablespoons of baking soda a little at a time to the vinegar.  The liquid fizzes when the baking soda is added.  Stir with the spoon to mix the two ingredients as you add the baking soda.
• Wait for the fizzing to stop before you continue. 
• Place the pot on the hot plate  and boil at medium heat  until the fluid  evaporates  and you’re left with a dry sol vent .  It should take about 30 -60 minutes for all the liquid to disappear. 
• When the liquid starts forming a crusty film on the surface, turn the heat down immediately to prevent it forming a thick crust.  (Scrape some of the crystals off the side of the pot to use later)
• If the solution is brown and cloudy, add more vinegar. Boil again.  
• Break up the lumps in the powder solution.
• Place the powder in the glass container  with a lid  and add water until it dissolves into a liquid.  (66 g of water for every 100 g of powder) Cover with the lid to prevent more evaporation. 
• Place the glass jar in a container with ice water to cool down. It takes about 15 minutes. You may also cool it in the fridge , but it will take longer than the ice water. 
• When you put your hand in the glass jar, the hot ice forms crystals around your hand and it is frozen to the touch.   

What Just Happened Here?

The chemical reaction is also exothermically creating the hot feeling when touching the ice.   

The physical change is noticeable when the liquid mixture releases gas and changes into a solid form.  When water is added the powder dissolves.   

The solution  is a supercooled liquid that  stays liquid when cooled down below its freezing point in the ice water.    

The  unstable supersaturated  liquid will freeze forming crystals at the slightest trigger  when adding some of the crystals to the solution. For a cool effect dip your fingers  into  the liquid .   Crystallization  forms at the nucleation site whe n  solute molecules that bump into each other overcome the power of the sol vent that keeps molecules apart .   

More Resources

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Hot-Ice  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiAv9GE_2o4  

https://www.playdoughtoplato.com/kids-science-experiment-hot-ice/  

https://www.thoughtco.com/hot-ice-or-sodium-acetate-607822  

Retha Groenewald is a professional writer working for FractusLearning. When not working with Fractus, she is web copywriter for the Christian market. Her writing is featured at Christian Web Copywriter and at Writing That Breathes Life.

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Several of you have written in asking for help with your homemade hot ice or sodium acetate. Here are the answers to the most common hot ice questions as well as advice on how to fix the usual problems making hot ice.

What Is hot ice?

Hot ice is a common name for sodium acetate trihydrate.

How Do I Make Hot Ice?

You can make hot ice yourself from baking soda and clear vinegar. I've got written instructions and a video tutorial to show you how to do it.

In the lab, you could make hot ice from sodium bicarbonate and weak acetic acid (1 L 6% acetic acid, 84 grams sodium bicarbonate) or from acetic acid and sodium hydroxide (dangerous! 60 ml water, 60 ml glacial acetic acid , 40 g sodium hydroxide ). The mixture is boiled down and prepared the same as the homemade version.

You can also buy sodium acetate (or sodium acetate anhydrous) and sodium acetate trihydrate. Sodium acetate trihydrate can be melted and used as-is. Convert sodium acetate anhydrous to sodium acetate trihydrate by dissolving it in water and cooking it down to remove the excess water.

Can I Substitute Baking Powder for the Baking Soda?

No. Baking powder contains other chemicals which would act as impurities in this procedure and prevent the hot ice from working.

Can I Use Another Type of Vinegar?

No. There are impurities in other types of vinegar which would prevent the hot ice from crystallizing. You could use dilute acetic acid instead of vinegar.

I Can't Get the Hot Ice to Solidify. What Can I Do?

You don't have to start from scratch! Take your failed hot ice solution (won't solidify or else is mushy) and add some vinegar to it. Heat the hot ice solution until the crystal skin forms, immediately remove it from heat, cool it at least down to room temperature , and initiate crystallization by adding a small quantity of the crystals that formed on the side of your pan (sodium acetate anhydrous). Another way to initiate crystallization is to add a small amount of baking soda , but if you do that you will contaminate your hot ice with sodium bicarbonate. It's still a handy way to cause crystallization if you don't have any sodium acetate crystals handy, plus you can remedy the contamination by adding a small volume of vinegar afterward.

Can I Re-Use the Hot Ice?

Yes, you can re-use hot ice. You can melt it on the stove to use it again or you can microwave the hot ice.

Can I Eat Hot Ice?

Technically you can, but I wouldn't recommend it. It is not toxic, but it is not edible.

You Show Glass and Metal Containers. Can I Use Plastic?

Yes, you can. I used metal and glass because I melted the hot ice on the stove. You could melt the hot ice in a microwave using a plastic container.

Are Containers Used to Make Hot Ice Safe to Use for Food?

Yes. Wash the containers and they will be perfectly safe to use for food.

My Hot Ice Is Yellow or Brown. How Do I Get Clear/White Hot Ice?

Yellow or brown hot ice works... it just doesn't look that much like ice. The discoloration has two causes. One is overheating your hot ice solution. You can prevent this type of discoloration by lowering the temperature when you heated the hot ice to remove the excess water. The other cause of discoloration is the presence of impurities. Improving the quality of your baking soda ( sodium bicarbonate ) and acetic acid (from the vinegar) will help prevent discoloration. I made my hot ice using the least expensive baking soda and vinegar I could buy and managed to get white hot ice, but only after I lowered my heating temperature, so it's possible to get decent purity with kitchen ingredients.

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Hot Or Cold Ice

Hot or cold Ice?!? 

Sounds like a crazy name for an experiment. 

Of course, ice is always cold but in this experiment we’ll take a look at which freezes first hot or cold water?

What Do I Need?

• 2 identical cups (ideally plastic!)

How Do I Do It?

STEP1  - The setup for this experiment couldn’t be much simpler. All we need is two identical cups and some hot and cold water.

WARNING: For safety it’s best to use plastic cups as water gets a little bigger when it freezes which could cause a glass to shatter if you didn’t keep an eye on it.

STEP2  -  Pour some hot water into one of your glasses and exactly the same amount of cold water into the other.

STEP3  -  The idea in this experiment is to see which freezes first. The hot or the cold water. Which do you think? Make your prediction now!

STEP4  -  To make sure that this is as fair a test as possible place the hot and cold cups of water close to one another in the same part of the freezer and time which one freezes first.

STEP5  - What?!!? Not what you thought?

STEP6  - If you got a different result to the one that you were expecting then the best thing to do is to repeat the experiment but with the hot and cold water in opposite positions. Do you still get the same result?

What’s Going On?

It’s very likely that you found that your hot water froze before your cold water did.

This doesn’t seem like it makes too much sense and that’s exactly why I wanted to include this simple but baffling experiment.

Sometimes hot water freezes faster than cold water and this is known as the Mpemba effect. There are many different variables that can cause this. One theory is that more of the hotter water evaporates first meaning that there is less water to freeze so it freezes more quickly.

Another theory is that the convection currents within the hot water are the cause. The truth is that we’re not really sure, which is why I thought this was the perfect experiment to include.

More Fun Please! - Experiment Like A Real Scientist!

• Do you find that that it’s the hot or the cold water that freezes first each time?

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The Australian Olympian 'Raygun' went viral for her breaking moves. Now she's defending them.

• Rachael Gunn, known as "Raygun," is an Australian B-girl (break-girl) who competed at the Olympics .
• She lost three battles in the round-robin part of the competition, but her moves went viral online.
• Gunn and sporting organizations are speaking out about harassment and misinformation after her performance.

Breaking made its debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics — and while she didn't earn a spot on the podium, the Australian breaker Rachael Gunn, known as Raygun, has received plenty of recognition online.

Gunn is a 36-year-old lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney whose research focuses on the "cultural politics of breaking," according to her faculty profile .

But Gunn's time on the Olympic stage was short-lived. The B-girl was eliminated during the round-robin stage of the women's breaking competition, losing in one-on-one battles to the United States' Logistx, France's Syssy, and Lithuania's Nicka.

Raygun didn't earn a point in any of those battles, but as clips of her performance spread online, she got something else: instant meme status.

Here's what you need to know about Raygun now that the breaking competition is over.

Raygun is an academic who studies breaking — and she competes internationally

Before Gunn went to the Olympics, she approached the 2024 Games from an academic perspective.

With her coauthor, Lucas Marie, Gunn published an article in the June 2023 issue of Global Hip Hop Studies titled "The Australian breaking scene and the Olympic Games: The possibilities and politics of sportification." The article examined how the Olympics' institutionalization would affect the Australian breaking scene.

Alongside her academic career, Gunn is a competing B-girl. But before she got into breaking, she had experience with ballroom dancing, jazz, hip-hop, salsa, and tap, The Australian Women's Weekly reported. Gunn told The Sydney Morning Herald that her husband, Samuel Free, introduced her to breaking in 2008 while they were at university. Free is still her coach, she said.

Gunn told Women's Weekly that breaking "hooked" her in 2012, around the time that she began her doctoral program in cultural studies. She began competing more seriously in 2018 and eventually set her sights on the Olympics.

According to her university profile, she was the top-ranked B-girl of the Australian Breaking Association in 2020 and 2021, representing the country at the World DanceSport Federation Breaking Championships in 2021, 2022, and 2023. She also won the WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships in 2023.

"My bag always has two main things: It's like, my knee pads and my laptop," Gunn said on the podcast " The Female Athlete Project ." "Because I need my knee-pads to break. And then, yeah, just do some emails quickly. Or like, do some revisions on a chapter I submitted, or copyedit this article I did, or moderate those grades."

The athlete also told the Herald that she preferred to wear "baggy jeans and a baggy T-shirt" while breaking.

"I like the heaviness they bring," Gunn said. "Maybe it's my background in hip-hop, but having weight closer to the ground works for me, gets me in the right headspace."

Raygun's performances at the Olympics sparked memes and criticism

Raygun took the stage at the Olympics wearing a tracksuit in Australia's green and gold, breaking out moves that included hopping like a kangaroo. Her performances attracted attention online and memes that compared her moves to, among other things, dancing children.

Related stories

The fact that RayGun has a Ph.D in breakdancing is its own commentary on academia vs real world expertise. https://t.co/pQcL8HzAW9 — BioTechSnack (@SnackBioTech) August 9, 2024

me forcing my mom to watch the dance i made up in the pool pic.twitter.com/zbtwEFjpTG — kenzi (@kenzianidiot) August 9, 2024

Judges made the right call here because what was that move lol #Olympics #Breakdancing pic.twitter.com/sXAs9AdHjX — MⓞNK BLOODY P👑s (@MonkeyBlood) August 9, 2024

But some critics argued that Raygun's performance didn't represent breaking — a sport that will not return to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Breaking came from Black and brown communities in the Bronx in the 1970s. Malik Dixon, an African American man who lives in Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Gunn came off as "somebody who was toying with the culture" during a significant moment for the sport.

(You can watch the 2024 Olympic events — including Raygun's full performance — on Peacock.)

Raygun qualified for the Olympics through the Oceania Breaking Championships

There were three ways to qualify for breaking at the Olympics, which the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) outlined in April 2022: at the WDSF championship in Belgium in September 2023, in a continental qualifier, or in an Olympic qualifier series held in 2024. Gunn qualified regionally by winning the WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships, which were held in Sydney in October 2023.

AUSBreaking organized the Oceania Breaking Championships, according to the WDSF .

AUSBreaking posted on Instagram about the Oceanic Olympic qualifying event on Instagram in September 2023, announcing in a September 25, 2023 post that competitor registration was open. The panel of judges was composed of 10 breakers from multiple countries, led by head judge Katsu One of Japan.

Per the Sydney Morning Herald, Gunn was the highest-scoring B-girl on day one of the championships. She won two battles on the second day to secure her title and a qualifying spot in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

AUSBreaking released a statement on Instagram Monday about the selection process, saying that the qualifying event was "open to all interested participants in the Oceanic region," conducted in line with WDSF standards, and adjudicated by an international panel that used the same judging system as the 2024 Olympics.

"Ultimately, Rachael Gunn and Jeff Dunne emerged as the top performers in exactly the same process, securing their spots to represent Australia in Paris," the statement reads. "Their selection was based solely on their performance in their battles on that day."

Raygun and sporting organizations have spoken out about misinformation after her performance

Claims have circulated online that Gunn unfairly obtained her spot in the games. Posts online, as reported by the Australian Associated Press , claimed that Gunn's husband was one of the judges in her qualifying event. One petition hosted on Change.org claimed that she established the governing body that ran the selection process. That petition was eventually removed after it was placed under review, per an archived snapshot .

A representative for Change.org confirmed to Business Insider on Thursday that the petition had been flagged for misinformation, reviewed per the platform's community guidelines, and removed from the platform.

"Change.org maintains strict guidelines against content that constitutes harassment, bullying, or spreading false information. We take such matters seriously and remove any content that violates these standards to protect our users and uphold the integrity of our community," the rep said in an email statement to BI.

Despite the online claims, Free was not one of the judges at Gunn's qualifying event. And Gunn did not establish AUSBreaking. The organization said in a statement that it was founded by its president Lowe Napalan in 2019, and "at no point" was Gunn "the founder, an executive, committee member, or in any position of leadership."

The Australian Olympic Commission (AOC) also released a statement condemning the Change.org petition, and demanding its removal. It also said that by winning the Oceania championship, Gunn was "legitimately nominated" by DanceSport Australia to the AOC to represent Australia at the Olympics.

"The petition has stirred up public hatred without any factual basis. It's appalling," AOC chief executive officer Matt Carroll said in the statement. "No athlete who has represented their country at the Olympic Games should be treated in this way and we are supporting Dr. Gunn and Anna Meares at this time."

In a video uploaded to her personal Instagram account, Gunn said that she was "honored" to have represented Australia and breaking during its Olympic debut. But the "hate" that followed was "devastating," she said. When it came to misinformation around her qualification, Gunn referred viewers to previously issued statements from the AOC and AUSBreaking.

Raygun and breaking judges have defended her Olympic performance

At a press conference on Saturday, the day after Gunn's competition, Anna Meares, the head of the Australian team, responded to criticism of Gunn online.

"I love Rachael, and I think that what has occurred on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors, and taking those comments and giving them airtime, has been really disappointing," Meares said, per ESPN .

"Raygun is an absolutely loved member of this Olympic team. She has represented the Olympic team, the Olympic spirit with great enthusiasm. And I absolutely love her courage," Meares continued. "I love her character, and I feel very disappointed for her, that she has come under the attack that she has."

During a press conference on Sunday, Martin Gilian, the Olympic breaking head judge, defended Gunn's performance, saying breaking was "all about originality" and representing your roots, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

"This is exactly what Raygun was doing," Gilian said. "She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo."

Gunn said during the Saturday press conference that "all of my moves are original," ESPN reported. She told The Guardian that her biggest strength was "creativity."

"I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative," Gunn told The Guardian, "because how many chances do you get that in a lifetime to do that on an international stage. I was always the underdog and wanted to make my mark in a different way."

This story was originally published on August 12, 2024, and has been updated to include the latest information and statements from those involved.

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