What effect does salt have when you boil water?
Things Required:
2 small pots half full of cold water
2 tablespoonfuls of salt
Directions:
Add two tablespoonfuls of salt to one of the pots of cold water. Don’t add anything to the other pot. Heat both pots on the stove. Which one starts to boil first?
This Is What Happens:
The pot without the salt boils first!
Science Behind It:
The point at which a substance changes from a liquid to a gas is called the boiling point.
The more salt in water, the higher the temperature must be for the water to boil. Salt molecules turn to gas at much higher temperatures than water molecules.
So, we add salt to cold water if we want our food to cook faster since it will be cooking at a higher temperature. Spaghetti and other pastas, for instance, cook well in vigorously boiling salted water. The difference in temperature between salted and unsalted water can be important when we’re cooking sauces and custards that call for exact temperature or timing.
