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General Answer:

An increase in salinity causes a increase in density and conversely, a decrease in salinity causes a decrease in density. The effect is quite linear, though it has a temperature dependence that affects how much the density changes.

Specific Answer:

Density = M/V, so density of a substance increases if the mass increases or the volume decreases or, if both change, density increases if the mass increases faster than the volume decreases.

The average density of water at the ocean's surface is about 1.025 g/ml or 2.5 % greater than pure water. This is due to the mass of added sea salts which is 3.5% or .035 g/ml. The added sea salts have a small effect on the volume, so the resulting combination is more dense than pure water.

Salt has 2.165 grams per milliliter and water is 1 gram per milliliter, so if you just added one milliliter of salt and that displaced one milliliter of water, the change in mass would be 1.165 grams. Alas, that is not even close. Adding one milliliter of sodium chloride to a liter of water will only increase the volume by about one half of a milliliter.

Beyond that sodium has an Atomic Mass of about 23 and chlorine about 35.5, while a water molecule's mass is about 18. So the components of salt are heavier than the components of water.

If one takes all the factors into account, one is eventually led to the conclusion that adding salt to water does not take up the volume expected and does not increase the density exactly how you might expect and there must be some rearrangement of the molecules of water that affects how closely they fit together. This is, in fact, true and has been the subject of much study and there is much more known about this.

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āˆ™ 10y ago
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āˆ™ 9y ago

As salinity and temperature rise, water density increases.

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āˆ™ 13y ago

It increases slightly the water density at the same temperature.

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āˆ™ 15y ago

A higher level of salinity increases the density of water. Salt is heavier than water, so putting salt in makes the overall weight, and thus density, go up.

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āˆ™ 15y ago

It increases the density because the salt weighs more than the water.

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āˆ™ 9y ago

Increased salinity and temperature result in an increase in water density.

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Q: How does the amount of salt in water affect the density?
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Continue Learning about General Science

What are some abiotic factors that affect puffer fish?

The amount of salt and oxygen in the water, light, and water murkiness.


Does antimatter have density?

density is the word used to describe how much is in a certain place e.g. 100ml of salt water has a higher density than the same amount of pure H2O because the salt water has both H2O and NaCl (salt) squashed into the same amount of space therefore everything has density if however if you meant mass or weight the answer would also be yes


What else besides an egg float in salt water and sinks in fresh water?

It depends entirely on the amount of salt in the water. Pure water has a density of 1 kg/L. Any item that is less dense than 1 kgL, will float. Items with a greater density will sink. As you increase the salinity of water, the density of the salt adds to the water's density. The Dead Sea, for example, has a high saline level (31%) and it's density is 1.24kg/L. An average sized person can easily float in these waters.


How does an egg flowt in salt water?

It has less density than salt water


What happens to the density of distilled water when you add salt to it?

When you add table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) to water, the salt dissolves into ions, Na+ and Cl-. The volume increases by a small factor, but the mass increases by a bigger factor. There are two reasons. One is simply that the NaCl is much denser than water to begin with, mainly because its ions have more mass than the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in the water molecules. Also, the ions bind nicely with the water molecules, so that the volume of the saltwater isn't as big as the water volume plus the salt volume.

Related questions

How does the amount of salt added to the water affect buoyancy?

density


What is density of salt water?

This depends on the amount of water and the amount of salt.


How does salt affect density?

Salt will increase the density of water at the same temperatures.


What is the measurement of the amount of salt in water?

Density


Does salt effect density of water?

Yes it does,it increases the amount of density


How does salt affect the density of water outline?

It increases.


What are the factors that may affect the rate at which the salt dissolves in water?

The factors that may affect the rate at which salt dissolves in water are heat, the amount of water and the amount and type of salt you are using.


Does salt content of water affect the density of seawater?

the salt makes seawater denser than freshwater. more salt increases the density


What can affect ocean waters density?

The temperature of the water and the salt content of the water.


What characteristic determines the density of the ocean water?

The amount of salt.


The measure of amount of salt in the water is called?

Density


Does egg always float in salt water?

An egg will float in salt water depending on the amount of salt found in the water because this increases the density of the solution. The density of salt water should always be higher than the density of the egg in order for it to float.