Suppose that the surface of some ice is at -1 °C, and you want to know how much pressure you must apply to melt it. The latent heat of fusion is 6.01 × 103 J/mole. At the melting point, the density of ice is 0.917 g/cm3 and that of liquid water is 0.9999 g/cm3. The molecular weight of water is 18.
(a) How much pressure will you have to apply to melt it?
(b) If you weigh 700 N, the area of contact between your shoes and the ice must be less than what?
(c) With soft-soled shoes on very flat ice, will your pressure be sufficient to melt the ice?
(d) If you are wearing hard-soled shoes, and the ice is bumpy, so that the area of contact between your shoes and the ice is only 20 mm2 (the tops of the bumps), will you melt the ice?
(e) On flat ice, you slide much farther with ice skates than with shoes. Why?