Water as solvent

In daily life you constantly encounter water; it is almost everywhere. In nature, water almost never occurs in its pure form, but is always mixed with other substances. In everyday life, such as in cooking or personal hygiene, you mix water with other substances. In this experiment, you should investigate what happens when you mix four known substances with water.

   Experiment

1.     Put a pinch of sugar, salt, flour and slaked lime in separate ampoules. Label the ampoules with 1, 2, 3 and 4.                                 more see below

2.     Fill each ampoule with water.

3.     Cap each vial with a stopper, shake them and let them stand for a few minutes.

4.     Take with the pipette some liquid from the ampoules with the flour and with the lime, and put a drop of liquid from each on a black plastic base. Leave them to stand in air for a few minutes.

Tasks

1.     Write down your observations and explain them.

2.     Consider the processes on particle level and explain.

3.     On the basis of your observations about solubility arrange the substances into two groups.

4.     Find more solutes (solid or liquid) from your everyday life to be solved in which you can make the same distinction.

First publication: 19.04.2014                                                                      Last modification: 15.05.2014