how salt in ice affects how easily it melts at room temp?

[Sanndra123]

I want someone to please explain to me about the above question thanks

[theborg]

Sanndra123,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the forum. Salt causes ice to melt and prevents it from re-freezing by lowering the freezing temperature of water. This is called freezing point depression. As the salt dissolves into the water/ice, each molecule of salt breaks into two parts...a sodium ion and a chloride ion. These particles essentially get in the way of water molecules and prevent them from combining with other water molecules to form the stable crystal structure known as ice. This reaction will continue until no more sodium chloride (salt) can dissolve into the solution at a certain temperature. At this point the salt water solution will freeze, but it will be at a much lower temperature than that required for pure water.