Charu stirs a spoonful of salt into a glass of water until the water looks perfectly clear again
Charu stirs a spoonful of salt into a glass of water until the water looks perfectly clear again. Charu says the salt is gone — it has vanished. Her classmate Bhuvan says the salt is still in the glass, even though no one can see it. Which of them should the class believe?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: Bhuvan is right, the salt is still there, dissolved in the water
Why
Charu is trusting her eyes, and her eyes are telling the truth about one thing: no salt grains are visible any more. But 'I can't see it' and 'it isn't there' are different claims. When salt dissolves, it breaks into pieces far too tiny to see and spreads evenly through the water — salt is soluble in water, which is exactly the property this chapter is about. Two simple checks show it's still there. Taste a drop: it's salty, from the top of the glass to the bottom. Or pour a little into a steel plate and leave it in the sun — once the water evaporates, a white layer of salt is left behind on the plate. That is how salt is made from seawater, too. Bhuvan is right: the salt is still in the glass, dissolved and spread through the water, not destroyed.
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