Scientists generally agree that this lubricating, liquidlike layer is what makes ice slippery. From this, they concluded that when ice is rubbed by a material that easily absorbs heat, less heat is available to melt the ice, making it less slippery. Ice can be slippery the moment we step on it, before any motion has occurred that could cause frictional heating. The scientists found that the slipperiness did not depend on the speed, suggesting that frictional heating—which should increase with speed—isn’t what makes ice slippery. Hypothesis 3: PremeltingThere’s another possibility: that ice’s surface is wet even before anything makes contact with it.