How does salt melt snow & ice? (1 Viewer)

[LDfan]

This maybe a dumb question but with the coming snow to the DC area I started thinking about this. What exactly is special about salt that causes snow and ice to melt?

thanks,
Jeff

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

Basically, the salt lowers the freezing point of the water, therefore causing the snow/ice to freeze at a lower temperature. I think!

 

[ThomasC]

Yep, Jeff is right.

 

[Eric Samonte]

yeah..and here's to hoping we have enuough of it for all the snow coming down up here..

 

[MarkHastings]

This site rocks for answering those kinds of questions!!!!
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question58.htm