You wake up naked and locked inside of a walk-in freezer. Brrrr! You only have so much time before you freeze and die. \n A steel pipe is sticking straight out of the floor. You look inside and see that the bottom is sealed, and sitting there at the bottom is the key to get out. \n Your wrist is too fat to fit inside the pipe. Tantalizing. Your killer must have mounted the pipe and then dropped the key inside as a joke. \n You look around the freezer to find anything else. All you find is a jar of salt and a glass pitcher of water that hasn't yet frozen. Markered on the pitcher of water are instructions: "dump this water on your head to turn into a cool popsicle"

In this chilling predicament, understanding a few basic scientific principles is the key to escaping. First, consider the unique property of water: when it freezes into ice, its density actually decreases, meaning ice is less dense than liquid water. This is why ice floats! By pouring water into the pipe, the key becomes encased in ice. Since the pipe is sealed at the bottom, the frozen (Review) key will essentially become a solid plug of ice and metal.

However, simply freezing the key doesn't get it out. This is where the salt becomes crucial. Salt, or more precisely, dissolved solutes, lowers the freezing point of water, a phenomenon known as freezing point depression. This means that saltwater (Deals) freezes at a lower temperature than pure water. By mixing salt into the remaining water, you ensure that this water stays liquid even at the sub-zero temperatures inside the freezer, preventing it from freezing solid and becoming unusable.

Now, with the key encased in ice, a small amount of salt can be used to melt just enough of the ice around the key to loosen it from the pipe's interior and the floor. Then, pouring the prepared saltwater into the pipe allows the now-loosened ice block containing the key to float to the top due to its lower density compared to the liquid saltwater. This makes it retrievable, allowing you to chip away the ice and claim your freedom.