Question: why is ice so slippery?

Liam Taylor answered on 16 Nov 2018:

Ice is quite sneaky! It’s not actually that slippery, and if you walk on ice (like the picture below), it’s quite grainy and full of dirt that helps you get good grip. The reason why some ice is slippery is because it has a very very thin layer of water all around it. Next time you make some ice cubes, grab them in your hand. Look very very very closely – you can see that there’s a bit of water all the way round which makes it slippery. This only happens with very very clean ice though – like frozen puddles in the winter.