Re: Does salt or baking soda dissolve better in water?

Good. You did the experiment and have a few questions about your results. The 
salt seemed to go into solution faster but the solution was kind of foggy. I did 
the experiment too, and I got the same results you did. In fact when I ground up 
the salt, the salt went into solution in about a minute and it is now ten 
minutes later and the baking soda is still not dissolved. I used warm water. I 
didn't measure it, but the water was around body temperature which is about 100 
degrees Fahrenheit. I took an ounce of water (six teaspoonsful) and added 5 
grams of ground up salt (a full teaspoon) to one glass. I added 5 grams of 
baking soda (about 2/3 of a teaspoon) to another glass with the same amount of 
water. I stirred both mixtures about every ten seconds. I tried to keep 
everything the same except for the fact that one had salt and one had baking 
soda. I also noticed the fogginess in the salt solution, but I don't think that 
is a failure of the salt to dissolve.

So I think we have answered your question with our experiments. It sounds like 
we may have had different conditions. I stirred mine and maybe you didn't. Mine 
was warm and from the time it took for yours to dissolve, I'm guessing that 
yours was cool. We got the same results. That is called replication and it is an 
important part of science. We tried to control for conditions that might affect 
the result. I was worried that the size of the crystals might influence the 
result, but I was wrong. Grinding up the salt only made the difference bigger. I 
conclude that salt dissolves faster than baking soda.

Should one of us ask the Chemistry section what that fogginess is in the salt 
solution?

I hope this helps. If you have more kitchen chemistry questions, I'm ready to 
experiment with you.

David Winsemius, MD