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Asked by josieeeeb to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 24 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by wizzyg12.
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Sam Geen answered on 24 Jun 2013:
Ice is slippery because when you put pressure on it, the top layer of ice melts and turns into liquid water. So when you’re skating on ice, you’re actually skating on a thin layer of liquid water. Very cold ice can in fact be sticky – if try to lick a block of very cold ice, it can stick to your tongue because the water on your tongue freezes. So don’t do that.
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Kate Husband answered on 24 Jun 2013:
Ice is slippery because the surface is often liquid providing a lubricant. For example an ice skater will melt the ice underneath their skates from the pressure of their weight on on the ice and hence they can slide over the ice on this thin layer of water.
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Matthew Pankhurst answered on 24 Jun 2013:
It’s to do with how smooth the surface is, and how dry it is. Ice is solid water, and water forms crystals when it freezes. These crytals themselves are not all that slippery. But! When there is a little bit of liquid water on the surface and you walk on it you can slip because the water between your shoe and the ice is moved out the way very quickly – taking you with it! If the ice is made from very very tiny crystals then the surface will be smooth, sometimes so smooth its like a mirror. Other times the surface is quite rough and dry – it’s crunchy when you walk on it, and you have pretty good grip.
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