Many people are interested in the question of which snow melts faster: clean or dirty? By the way, there are at least three correct answers to it.
What is snow?
To find the answer to the question of which snow melts faster: clean or dirty, you need to figure out what the subject of discussion is.
Looking at the snowflakes, everyone can notice that they consist of small ice needles, which are stuck together in a geometrically correct design. Why this happens is another question entirely. Now it’s important to understand that, by its chemical composition, snow is water in a solid (frozen) state.
What is the melting point of ice and snow?
There is a second important factor that is necessary when searching for the answer to the question of which snow melts faster: clean or dirty. This is the melting point of ice and snow.
It is known that water from its solid state to liquid passes at 0 degrees Celsius. It was this point that was taken for reference in drawing up the degree scale, which we all use in practical life. That is, there is no surprising coincidence that the ice melts at 0 degrees. It was simply convenient for scientists to take precisely this temperature as the main starting point. Just as 100 degrees Celsius is nothing but the boiling point (transition from liquid to gaseous) of the same water. In other words, at this moment, the formation of steam. In general, this is understandable. After all, water on Earth is the very substance that we can easily observe in all three states.
This is the steam coming from the spout of the kettle, that is, gas. This is directly water, that is, liquid. This is snow and ice, that is, solid.
Which snow melts faster: clean or dirty?
In this case, two more factors are important. Firstly, where is the snow - in a room isolated from sunlight, or in an open area. Secondly, what is meant by the word "dirty."
If we assume that the snow gets dirty with earth, sand or other solid substances that cannot be dissolved in water, then there will be one answer to the question of which snow melts faster: clean or dirty. But if we talk about a mixture of snow with soluble substances, such as salts, the answer will be different. This is because saline solutions have a lower freezing point.
That is, snow with an admixture of salt at 0 degrees begins to melt, because at the point of contact there is a mixing of substances - water and salt. A saline solution can be in a solid state at a temperature slightly lower than 0 degrees.
Now everyone understands why the ice on the roads in the winter is sprinkled with salt? So that it melts and loses its hardness and, as a result, slippery.
Dirty and clean snow in the room.
But suppose we are talking not about snow sprinkled with salt, but about that on which coal or earth was poured. How will this fact affect its melting rate?
If we talk from the point of view of melting point, then nothing. Brought from the street into the room, the snow clean and dirty will turn into water at the same time. Since the temperature of the transition of one and the other from a solid to a liquid state is the same.
