In Hot Water

Project #1540 on iSENSEProject.org

IN HOT WATER

My mother always adds salt to her pot of water when boiling pasta.  She says it helps to boil the water faster.  Is this true?

Materials: measuring cup, water, pot, tablespoon, salt, Go Temp!, Vernier Graphical Analysis, iSense

Steps

-Add 250 mL of water to a pot.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Insert GoTemp! and collect data in Vernier for at least 40 seconds. Do not let the thermometer touch the bottom of the pot.

-Repeat Step 1 two more times: one after dissolving 1 tbs of salt and the last with 2 tbs of salt.

Guiding Questions

* Using the bar graph, set "Tools" to maximum.  What temperature was reached in each experiment?

* Using the scatter plot, explain what happened to the temperature of the water with 1 tbs of salt from 4-10 seconds.  Give a possible explanation. 

* What is the benefit to adding salt to boiling water? 

BONUS - Convert each maximum temperature from degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit using the following formula.  Temp(F) = Temp(C) x 9/5 + 32