Why is salt water more dense than sugar water?

Answer 1

Salt water. There are plenty of explanations why salt water is denser. Basically, because salt is denser.

Answer 2

Salt water is more dense than sugar water because salt molecules are heavier than sugar molecules, contributing to a higher mass per unit volume. The dissolved salt ions also increase the intermolecular forces, making the water molecules pack more closely together, further increasing the density of the solution.

Answer 3

Because Sugar becomes disolved into the water, the water is "heavier" with sugar in it than without. Therefore when you add sugar to water, it becomes a denser material than water. If you put dye in sugar water, and then pour it into regular water, you will probably find that the sugar water sinks to the bottom. Of course, the laws of fluid dynamics require the dye and the sugar water to mix with the plain water, so it may not be a night and day kind of contrast, but it will more than likely be visible if the experiment is done with enough volume of ingredients.

Answer 4

There is no simple, yes or no, answer.

One type of solution is not always more dense. The density of sugar water or salt water depends on the quantity of sugar or salt that one puts into the solution.

But, one can explain why the density of a solution changes and explain why a solution of dissolved ions (e.g. salt) would be different than a nonionic solution (sugar).

Compare two solutions, one salt, one sugar (sucrose) with the same density.

Put 35 grams of salt in 1 liter of water and you get about a liter plus about another milliliter of solution. The result is a salt water solution of about 1.026 grams/milliliter, the same density as ocean water.

To get this density with sucrose, you need to add about double the mass of sucrose or, 70 grams of sucrose in a liter of water yields a liter plus a couple of milliliters. The result is a sugar water solution of about 1.026 grams/milliliter.

To get the same result, you had to put in more sucrose, but the sucrose molceules are a lot larger and have a greater mass, so one needs to consider how many molecules of each type were put it. There are 108 grams/mole of sucrose and 58.45 grams/mole of NaCl so there were fewer sucrose molecules. But, since sodium chloride ionizes and sucrose does not, you got two ions for each NaCl unit, so the number of dissolved species in each case is not all that different.

If you put equal masses of sugar and salt in a solution, then salt water is more dense. If you put equal numbers of dissolved species, it is not so different.

Caveat:

There is a temperature dependence to these effects, so changing the temperature by ten or twenty degrees changes some of these numbers a bit so the exact numbers given above should not be considered accurate to more than a few per cent.

Answer 5

Salt water. There are plenty of explanations why salt water is denser. Basically, because salt is denser.

Answer 6

salt water. For example the ocean. when you float does it feel easier to float in than a pool?yes!

Answer 7

Sugar.
Sugar.

Answer 8

Salt water is more dense.

Answer 9

which is more dens sugar water or salt water

Answer 10

salt water