A white, crystalline solid is soluble in water and has a high melting point. Is the solid ionic, polar covalent, or nonpolar covalent? Support your answer.

Question

jamierox4ev3r · Answer

There are several key points here that I'd like to bring to your attention

**The solid is described as being crystalline, which makes it seem like a salt. Salts tend to be ionic, as they are the mixture of a non-metal from the right of the periodic table and a metal from the left of the periodic table.

**The solid is soluble in water. We know that nonpolar compounds are hydrophobic, as they are not broken apart by the partial positive/negative charges in water. So we can eliminate nonpolar covalent as an answer choice.

**The solid has a high melting point. This indicates that the bonds are very strong and that there is a lot of energy needed to break them. Ionic bonds are stronger than both covalent and ionic bonds.

Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that the solid in this problem is ionic.

Does that make sense? @Sushi121212

sushi121212 · Answer

Yes, thank you so much! You really helped me understand!!