frozentundra123456
Lifer
- Aug 11, 2008
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Honestly not sure, I feel this is a very basic high school level science thing myself but I also have not been there in like almost 20 years.It seems to me the salt one froze more evenly too, the normal water was very interesting the way it froze, it was basically outside in and in some cases would even freeze/unfreeze in odd cycles probably due to convection currents or something. It was also filtered tap water and not distilled water so maybe the specific chemicals/minerals that were left over in it had some kind of influence too.
I'm thinking the salt may very well have affected to conductivity.
I can only think of one explanation, the salt in the salt water provided a nucleus (not sure of the right term) for the crystallization (solidification) to begin, even though the pure water will have a higher freezing point. The pure water may have formed a supercooled solution that actually got below the freezing point before forming a solid. For sure, salt water will have a higher electrical conductivity than pure water, but I dont know about thermal conductivity. Of course all of this is assuming the volumes of solution were equal, the beakers were identical, exposure to wind was the same, etc.