AboutRalph Salier-Hellendag Expertise Science Fair Judge for many years and experience with robotics, biology, chemistry, industrial processes, metalurgy and metal forming.
Experience Science Fair Judge for many years and have helped several students get to state level competition. Most recently 2 of my students received state level awards and one went on to the nationals in Washington DC.
Education/Credentials BA Archaeology - Anthropology
MA Business Anthropology
Question Why does salt water evaporate faster? Is it because sait water decrease the specific heat of water?
Answer Hi MarlA,
You are basing the your question on what fundamental facts? Did you take a container of salt water and a container of "regular" water and subject them to the same conditions? And in this experiment you found that the salt water evaporated faster? Are us sure that you used the same volume of water and that you weighed the both carefully enough? Once the salt crystals were dry after the water appeared to be fully evaporated, did you reweigh the salt to have a before and after view? If so, did the salt weight more or less then the original weight of the salt?
I ask these question because salt can be hydroscopic (water retaining) and thus not fully evaporated. Also I use the quotes around "regular" water, did you use tap water or distilled water for this experiment? Tap water can contain salts and minerals which could, once dryed change the final weight of salts.
And finally, did you keep records of the temp of the two test subjects to determine if one was hotter then the other? and how did you "eliminate" all of the other variables which could have contributed to a temperature variation?
