I tried to de-ice my car this morning with salt and I noticed it gets all wet really quickly. So I'm wondering why exactly salt speeds up the melting of ice? Is it a chemical reaction or is it just a physics thing?
I have the same problem every winter on my car 😅 so I'll explain what's going on. It's more of a physics thing than chemistry: salt lowers the freezing point of ice. Normally water freezes at 0°C, but when you put salt on it, it creates a salty solution that stays liquid at lower temperatures. So the ice melts even when it's below 0°C, and that's why you see everything get wet so quickly.
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