Question: Why Is Ice Slippery?

Jess Wade answered on 22 Jun 2015:

Ice is the solid form of water and is made from molecules arranged in a really neat and ordered pattern. It’s a weird crystal though, with hydrogen bonds between molecules that aren’t actually as strong as they are in liquid water. We used to think that when we went ice skating we’d put pressure on the top of the ice (because of our weight) and cause the top surface of the ice to melt which would let us slip over the surface. Now we just think it is a really weird solid. When you walk on ice with snow boots or big trainers your not much less likely to slip, even though by pushing your weight over a much bigger area your causing a much smaller pressure. We now thing there is a small layer of water above the top surface of the ice. The strange hydrogen bonds in ice also indicate that there are a few different crystal structures of ice, and they will all have different amounts of ‘slippyness’.