Growing Salt Crystals

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Growing Salt Crystals

• Beth Fugett
• Augusta High School
• 9th grade Science
• March 4, 2002

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
  
• Background Information
• Experiment
• Procedure
• Data
• Discussion Data Analysis
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• References

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Introduction
How does salt melt ice? I really wanted to
figure this out, but before I could I had to get
salt. Instead of just buying it I decided to
make it. I didnt know how to go about doing it
so I researched. I also decided to put the salt
in cold water as well as room temperature water.
I thought that the colder water wouldnt grow as
much salt as the room temperature water. I
decided this because when you put salt on ice it
melts the ice, not freezes. I hoped to figure
out what water temperature as to do with salt
growth in the oceans. By putting salt and water
in glasses and keeping one could, I thought I
would get a pretty good answer.
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Background Info.
Crystals are grown only when the conditions are
just right. That is why most crystals that are
grown arent perfect. Ice crystals are formed
when molten volcanic rock cools and
crystallizes.They can also grow from a solution.
It happens when one substance is dissolved in a
solution and they start to connect and
crystallize. Sea water is a solution. Crystals
are solids that have arranged atoms in a
repeating, orderly pattern. Some crystals are
made up of entirely one kind of atoms whereas
some are made up of certain atoms called
ions. Table salt is made special. After they
mine it, they sort it for quality, then crush.
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Experiment
Dependant Variable The amount of salt crystals
grown in each glass.
Materials 1/2 cup salt 1 cup water
4 toothpicks 2 glasses 1 spoon
6 in. of string Independent variable The
temperature of the water.
Constant The amount of water and salt put in
each glass and the amount of time taken to do the
experiment. Control The room temperature water
with 1/4 cup salt and 1/2 cup of water.
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1. Put 1/2 cup of water in each glass 2. Set one
in the refrigerator and one somewhere at room
temp. 3.Take 2 toothpicks and tape them together
the width of the glass. 4.Cut your string in half
and tape it to the toothpicks. 5. Do the same
with the other toothpicks and string. 6. Take the
glasses out after one or two days. 7. Put 1/4 cup
salt in each glass and stir until completely
dissolved. 8. Put toothpicks across the glass so
the string dangles in the water. 9. Then, put the
glass back where they were and over the next few
days record what you see.
Procedure
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Data
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Discussion and Data Analysis

• Which glass grew the most crystals?
• Why?
• Data related to hypothesis.
• Changes
• Data related to table

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Conclusion
Even though I didnt learn what I wanted to, I
still learnt a lot. The cold atmosphere around
the glass made the crystals grow slower than the
room temperature crystals. My hypothesis was in
a way correct. The cold water grew slower
crystals. I cant relate this to the ocean in a
fool proof way because the conditions of nature
are very different than the controlled ones in an
experiment.
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Acknoledgements
Many people helped me with finding and organizing
my experiments. Mr. Radloff helped me get new
ideas and helped me stay on task. My parents
bought the supplies and kept my sister and
brother away from it. I didnt use any
businesses because there wasnt a need for them.
So thank you for all your help.
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References

• World book, 17, salt, Chicago, World Book Inc.,
  2002, 72-75
• The New Book OF Knowledge, 3, Chicago, Groiler
  Incorporated, 1991, 591-593
• www.webmineral.com/crystal.shtml