Activity Overview
Enjoy a slushy fruit drink in any kind of weather. With a little time and patience you can transform a simple glass of juice into a fun slushy treat with this fun food science experiment.
In this experiment, salt is added to ice to lower its melting point. Eventually when the ice melts it will form a very cold salt water mixture. Over time, the the temperature of the juice is transferred to the salty water. This makes the juice get colder and colder until it freezes. The juice would eventually turn solid, but because of your frequent stirring, the icy mixture is broken up and slush is formed.
If you are doing this experiment for a cool treat on a very warm day, you may have to add a little bit of extra ice to the salty water solution that forms from the melted ice and salt.
Materials Needed
- A Large Bowl
- Lots of Ice cubes
- A Drinking Glass
- Juice
- Spoon
- Salt
- Straw
How to Do It
- Fill a bowl with ice.
- Sprinkle 4 Tablespoons of Salt over top of the ice cubes and stir into the ice with your spoon.
- Place a glass in the center of the bowl with the ice surrounding it but be certain not to allow the salt and ice to get over the rim of the glass.
- Fill your glass half way with juice.
- Use your spoon to stir the juice in the glass every 10 or 15 minutes over the period of an hour and a half or so.
- Then stir the juice more frequently for the next 30 minutes until the juice transforms into slush.
