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42 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, November 26, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend July 10, 2004 Since You Asked Trying to make some ice cream? Add salt My mom recently bought an ice cream maker, and we tried it for the first time over the Fourth of July. We followed the recipe and got great results, but we were all wondering why the instructions said to add rock salt to the ice. I thought that salt melted ice. — Claire C., Gold Hill Salt does indeed melt ice, the precise reason it’s often spread on roads in winter. This happens because salt dissolves into the liquid water in the ice and lowers the freezing point. So a colder temperature is required to freeze the solution. For example, ice forms when water reaches a temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit. A 10-percent salt solution freezes at 20 degrees, and a 20-percent solution freezes at 2 degrees. (Obviously, newspaper offices don’t perform science lab experiments, so we looked this one up on the How Stuff Works website). So because a solution of salt and melted ice is actually colder than ice alone, this brine is ideal for freezing homemade ice cream. And if your ice cream isn’t freezing fast enough, try adding more salt. Just to show off all we’ve learned about the freezing point of solutions, any dissolved foreign substance — including sugar, alcohol or other salts — will lower the freezing point of water. These solutes insert themselves between water molecules, making it more difficult for the molecules to cluster together and form ice crystals. Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by e-mail to [email protected] . We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities