Name:____________________________________________________ Date:_______________ Hour:________

Frosty the Snowman Meets his Demise

Introduction. Frosty the Snowman and two of his friends lie melted in the graduated
cylinders at the front of the classroom. Sadly, no one saw when they were placed in the
cylinders, so it is unclear how long they have been in this unfortunate state. In this activity,
you will be working to solve the mystery of when Frosty and his friends started melting.
You will be working backwards, just as scientists do when they are trying to determine the
age of fossils.
Scientists assign absolute ages to things using radiometric dating. Radiometric
dating uses the steady decay of unstable, radioactive isotopes to do this. Carbon-14 and
Uranium-238 are two examples of radioactive isotopes that are used by scientists to
determine the absolute age of fossils and rocks. Radioactive parent isotopes decay into
more stable daughter isotopes at a constant rate. The constant rate of decay is what
makes this method so accurate. The half-life of an isotope, is the time it takes for half of
the parent material to decay into daughter material. In this activity, we will be modeling
this process of radioactive decay using ice and water.
Materials.
Ice
Graduated cylinder
Timer (cell phone)

Ring Stand
Funnel

Part 1. Like radioactive isotopes, ice melts at a constant rate. If we can

measure and calculate the rate of melting, we can then use the rate to
figure out when the melting started.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Procedure.
1. In your lab group, you will observe and record data at
your lab station.
All the necessary materials are at your lab station, except ice. Assemble
the set-up as in the picture above. DO NOT ADD ICE YET!
When you add the ice, you will begin a timer for 5 minutes, and allow the
ice to melt.
In data table 1, you will record the volume of water in the graduated
cylinder after 5 minutes.
You will then calculate the melting rate and record the value in the data
table. Use the equation Rate = Volume/Time. (Volume is measured in
mL) (Time is measured in minutes).
Ice and water can be disposed of in the sink when you are done.

Name:____________________________________________________ Date:_______________ Hour:________

Data Table 1. The Melting Rate of Ice

Volume in the Graduated Cylinder
after 5 minutes
Example:
10 ml

Rate =(Volume (mL)/Time (min))

R=10/5= 2 ml/minute

Melting Rate of Ice: _________________ ml/minute

(round to the tenths place if your rate is a decimal)
Part 2. Frosty and two of his friends are melting in the funnels on the front counter. Your
job is to solve the mystery of when they started to melt. You can do this by making a few
simple calculations.
Procedure.
1. Record the volume of water in each graduated cylinder in data table 2. Make sure
you are reading from the meniscus!
Data Table 2.
Frosty &
Friends
Frosty

Volume of Water (ml)

Millie
Freddie
2. Now that you know how much ice has melted, calculate the amount of time the ice
has been melting for. To do this, use the melting rate you calculated in part 1 and
the formula below. Record the melting time for each snowman in Data Table 3.
Melting Time = Volume/Rate
3. Once you know how long the ice has been melting, calculate what time it started to
melt. To do this, subtract the number of minutes it has been melting, from the given
time that melting stopped. This end time is written in the data table for you.
End Time Melting Time = Time Melting Started
Data Table 3
Frosty &
Friends

Melting Time
(minutes)
Melting Time = V/R

Frosty

Time Melting Started

End Time Melting Time =
Time Melting Started
7:30

Millie

7:00

Freddie

6:45

Name:____________________________________________________ Date:_______________ Hour:________

Part 3.
You have now calculated the decay rate of ice, and used it to work backwards just as
scientists do, to determine when each snowman started to melt. You can now use this
information to calculate the half-life of ice. Remember, half-life is the amount of time it
takes for half of an unstable parent isotope to decay into a stable daughter isotope. In this
case, ice is the parent isotope and water is the daughter isotope.
Procedure.
1. Imagine we have 100 ml of ice.
2. In part 1, we calculated the rate at which ice decays into water. Using this rate, we
can calculate the half-life of ice. You can do this by using the definition of half-life
and the same equation we used to find the melting time:
Melting Time = Volume/Rate
HINT!! Half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of the parent material to decay
into daughter material. If you start with 100 ml of ice, half would be 50 ml! To solve for
time (half-life), plug in the volume and rate!

Half-Life of Ice: _______________ minutes

3. Once you have calculated the half-life of ice, use that information to complete data
table 4. The first column has been done for you.
Data Table 4.
# of HalfLives
0
1
2
3
4
5

Volume of Ice (ml)

Volume of Water (ml)

100

Time (minutes)
0

Name:____________________________________________________ Date:_______________ Hour:________

Analysis. Graph your results. Make a double line graph using the information in data
table 4. Label the x-axis Half-Life and the y-axis Volume (mL). Graph one line for ice
and one line for water. Use appropriate spacing and increments on each axis; fill up all of
the space! Give the graph a title, color the lines, and provide a key.

y-label: ______________________________________________________

Title: ______________________________________________________________

x label: ___________________________________________________________________________

Questions. Please answer using complete sentences.

1. What is radiometric dating? Is radiometric dating a method of relative or absolute dating? What
are some commonly used isotopes in radiometric dating?
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Name:____________________________________________________ Date:_______________ Hour:________

2. Using your graph, what volumes of ice and water would remain after 2.5 half-lives?
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3. Compare and contrast the half-lives of ice and carbon-14. How are they alike, and how
are they different?
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4. We found the melting rate of ice, and used it to work backwards to find out what time
the snowmen started to melt. How is this similar to what scientists do when using
radioactive isotopes to date fossils? How is it different?
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5. Draw a pie chart to show how what percentage of parent (ice) and daughter (water) isotopes were left
after each half life. Color each pie chart and provide a key.
1st half life

2nd half life

3rd half life

Summarize what happens to the amount of parent and daughter isotopes as an object like
a rock ages.
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