Questions about the melt rate of ice

[boothfam]

I'm doing a science fair project about how the shape of ice affects how fast it melts, and I have some questions about the melting rate of ice. I have two related questions: Do ice cubes melt faster on top of a hot surface, or surrounded by warm air? and Would an ice cube surrounded by other ice cubes melt at a different speed than a single ice cube in the same place?

[calixte]

Hello!

These are great questions. Ice cubes would melt faster of a hot surface than surrounded by warm air because heat moves faster from a solid to a solid that from a gas to a gas. An ice cube surrounded by other ice cubes would melt slower than just 1 ice cube because it would have more surface area exposed. Good luck on your science fair!

[audreyln]

Hello,

Melting is caused by heat transfer - heat (energy) moving from one substance to another. In this case you are thinking about energy moving to the solid ice cube from the gaseous air or to the solid ice cube from the solid hot surface. There are several different type of heat transfer but the two you are thinking about here are convective heat transfer and conductive heat transfer. You might consider researching these two terms to guide your experiment.

Audrey