Home & Garden0 min ago
Homework Trouble !
My science homework is about solids, liquids and gases and one of the questions is ... You can pour salt into a salt celler, so why is salt not a liquid?
Please help !
Please help !
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.A solid is the state in which matter maintains a fixed volume and shape; liquid is the state in which matter maintains a fixed volume but adapts to the shape of its container; and gas is the state in which matter expands to occupy whatever volume is available.
The tiny little salt crystals keep their individual fixed volumes and shapes. Although they fill the salt cellar they do not truly adapt to its shape there will always be spaces between the crystals and walls of the cellar. A liquid would fill every crevice.
The tiny little salt crystals keep their individual fixed volumes and shapes. Although they fill the salt cellar they do not truly adapt to its shape there will always be spaces between the crystals and walls of the cellar. A liquid would fill every crevice.
. . . or to put it another way . . .
A liquid will spread to take the shape of any container which it's poured into.
While the salt in the cellar may spread to roughly take up the shape of the cellar, consider what would happen if you emptied that cellar full of salt into the middle of a saucepan. You'd just get a pile of salt in the middle of the pan. (i.e. the salt wouldn't spread to take the shape of the saucepan, as would have happened if you'd have had water in the cellar, rather than salt).
Chris
A liquid will spread to take the shape of any container which it's poured into.
While the salt in the cellar may spread to roughly take up the shape of the cellar, consider what would happen if you emptied that cellar full of salt into the middle of a saucepan. You'd just get a pile of salt in the middle of the pan. (i.e. the salt wouldn't spread to take the shape of the saucepan, as would have happened if you'd have had water in the cellar, rather than salt).
Chris