Activity Overview
Young magicians will be the envy of any audience when they perform this fun Ice Cube Lifting challenge. It is always fun to challenge others to do the perceived impossible and then to magically perform the masterful feat. The salt lowers the melting point of the ice, and causes it to melt ever so slightly. The string sits in the water on top of the ice, and gets frozen to it, as the ice refreezes.
Our family was able to get this experiment to work one time but the ice cube quickly dropped from the string before we could get the picture. Other times, the ice cube stuck a little and the string eventually pulled away. The concept definitely works from a science perspective but it took some trial and error.
Materials Needed
- A glass of water
- An ice cube
- String
- Salt
How to Do It
- Place the ice cube in the glass and ask audience members to pick up the ice cube out of the glass of water using the string, but without getting their hands wet.
- The odds are definitely against them and they likely will not be able to perform such a task.
- Next lay one end of the string across the top of the ice cube and the other end of the string hanging over the edge of the glass.
- Wait for 5 minutes and then lift the dry end of the string which will have the ice cube attached to it, therefore successfully lifting the cube from the water without getting your hands wet.
