Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I was given this topic for 5th grade science fair. can you help me find information.

my topic is How does wet weather affect the rate that cars rust.

thank you

Hi Cam-cam,

My first approach to researching a question is to use answers.com. Providing "How does wet weather affect the rate that cars rust?" to answers.com, yields several websites, one of which looks pretty reasonable, see below. Occasionally, one has to change the input to answers.com to get a better result.

In this case, the material below is from http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 549AAmstTy

Rust forms from the oxidation of iron, a chemical reaction.
Water does not need to be present for rust (Ferric Oxide) to form. But water (H2O) contains oxygen and therefore supports the chemical reaction.

All chemical reactions can be accelerated in higher temperatures.
So a warm environment with H2O vapor in the air will accelerate the formation of rust.

Cool environments often have other factors that can accelerate the formation of rust. Many municipalities will scatter salt (sodium chloride) on road surfaces to lower the freezing temperature of water and delay the formation of ice. The sodium in the salt is very unstable and acts as a catalyst to the oxidation reduction process that forms rust. This is the reason we perceive that rust forms quickly in cool moist environments.