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Earth Sciences 17 Online
OpenStudy (anonymous):

How does adding salt in a solution of water (salinity) affect the density of the water and how it mixes with freshwater added to it?

OpenStudy (barreraa):

So when we say that salt water is more dense than regular water it means that there is more mass in a certain volume of the salt water than there is in the same volume of normal water. When you add table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) to water, the salt dissolves into ions, Na+ and Cl-. The volume increases by a small factor, but the mass increases by a bigger factor. There are two reasons. One is simply that the NaCl is much denser than water to begin with, mainly because its ions have more mass than the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in the water molecules. Also, the ions bind nicely with the water molecules, so that the volume of the saltwater isn't as big as the water volume plus the salt volume.

OpenStudy (barreraa):

@cwvaughan12

OpenStudy (anonymous):

thanks :)

OpenStudy (barreraa):

np :) :) glad to help

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