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Experiments with Elissia: Making frost

Posted at 5:10 PM, May 04, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-28 13:00:13-04

If you're looking to keep your kids busy, here is an experiment to try with your kiddos from Storm Team 4 Meteorologist Elissia Wilson.

For this experiment you will need a clean tin can, some crushed ice, water, and salt. After crushing your ice, add it to the can and then fill the can half way with water.

Water vapor is all around us but we can't see it because it's a gas. To get the water vapor to show up as frost on the can we have lower the melting point of the ice.

To lower the melting point of the ice and make the can even colder, add some salt and watch the frost begin to form on the outside of the can. After 5 minutes you will see the frost on your can.

We usually see frost in the morning on our car windshield and on plants- this happens when the temperature and the dewpoint are below freezing. The process of the water vapor changing directly into a solid is called deposition and what we see is frost.

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