Sodium Chloride

Today, we did our first lab of the year! We explored the following problem:

What is the maximum amount of Sodium Chloride (Table Salt) you can dissolve in 200mL of distilled water?

We measured salt on a scale, then added it bit by bit to different amounts of distilled water with a scapula. We got the following results:

Trial	Volume of Water (mL)	Mass of Salt (g)
1	15	0.65
2	25	0.84
3	40	1.44
4	50	1.17

We also learned that we must expect that errors are going to be made during an experiment. For example, one time when the salt was being transported from the scale to the beaker, some dropped onto the counter. This would have resulted in a different mass of the salt that dissolved in the water, since we subtracted the new amount from the original amount on the scale.


We then created a graph to determine how much salt can dissolve in 200mL of water by graphing the data points and drawing a line of best fit.

above: salt dissolving into water

above: a look at salt dissolving, scientifically