Re: Why does ice melt faster in water than it does in air?

This is a problem to do with conductivity. It is all to do with how fast water and air conduct heat. This is a basic property of a material. For example, metals generally conduct heat very well, but plastics do not. This is one reason we make radiators out of metal and not plastic. You can show this in a quick experiment - you need one metal and one plastic spoon, a little butter, two peas or beans, and a mug of hot water. Stick the peas to the handles of the spoons using a little butter, then put the other ends in the mug of hot water. The metal spoon will conduct the heat up to the butter and melt it more quickly than the plastic spoon. Similarly, water conducts much faster than air. In fact, it conducts about 24 times better than air, which is why a person in cold water will freeze faster than someone in cold air. Ice melts because it has gained energy from its surroundings and made the transition from a solid to a liquid, just as water in a kettle gains energy and goes from a liquid to a gas as it boils. In the case of the melting ice, the energy is gained from either the water it's in or the air around it. As water conducts heat much better than air it heats up the ice much quicker, thus melting it.