What temp does sea water freeze at? I found a science site that said that salt water froze at 3 deg c but I think that’s ballcocks. If that was the case, when they spead grit on the roads, it would cause the water on them to freeze at a higher temp. Nonsense.
I went fishing once and we had to break all the ice in the harbour to get the boat out. That WAS cold.
I vaguely remember one of my physics professors telling us the freezing point of sea water was about 28ºF or about minus 2ºC. But that would depend on the saltiness of the water, which varies by latitude (it’s saltier where evaporation is high). Are you sure your reference didn’t mean minus 3ºC?
I checked the values three times incase it was deg f or something but it definately said 3 deg c. I thought that it was about -15 deg c or something like that.
Off the top of my head, -2C to -4C sounds about right, but I don’t have a reference to cite.
Seawater is going to vary somewhat from place to place because its freezing point is dictated by how much matter it has in solution.
However, I was always under the impression that salt water froze at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point, sea spray can start freezing in the rigging of ships, which is why Fahrenheit set his scale at that point. Anyway, I’m sure to be wrong about this. Let’s see what Cece has to say about it…
You and Cecil just burst my bubble - I had been going for years on the explanation that I had from high school, that Farenheight had done the zero thing from salt and water and 100 from body temperature (which later had to be adjusted downwards for similar reasons as Cecil explained the upwards change). Gonna have to stop coming to the straight dope - my explanation was so much easier and you could come off as a know-it-all. Nobody’s going to stick around and listen to that explanation.
That is too funny. It’s amazing how some things get their start.