Hot Ice

Have you ever touched hot ice? “Science Guy” Jason Lindsey with Hooked on Science shows us how to turn a hand warmer into a hot ice sculpture. Be sure and use adult supervision.

Ingredients

2 sodium acetate hand warmers

Transparent glass

Plate

Instructions

STEP 1: Activate one of the sodium acetate hand warmers. Cut open the hand warmer and remove some of the crystals.

STEP 2: Place the crystals in the middle of the plate.

STEP 3: Using the scissors cut open the other sodium acetate hand warmer and pour the liquid contents into the transparent glass. Place the glass into the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

STEP 4: Slowly pour the liquid contents onto the crystals on the plate and observe.

Explanation

The hand warmer contains a supersaturated solution of water and sodium acetate. The crystals you placed on the plate starts a chain reaction causing the solution to crystallize. This process is an exothermic reaction, which gives off heat. You can discover more hands-on experiments by going to hookedonscience.org.