Question

What are the three ways to make a sugar cube dissolve more quickly in water?

Answer 1

Hint: Solubility is the maximum amount of a substance that will dissolve in a given amount of solvent at a specific temperature. There are two direct factors that affect solubility: temperature and pressure. Temperature affects the solubility of both solids and gases, but the pressure only affects the solubility of gases. The surface area does not affect how much of a solute will be dissolved, but it is a factor in how quickly or slowly the substance will dissolve.

Complete answer:
Sugar dissolves faster in hot water than it does in cold water because hot water has more energy than cold water. When water is heated, the molecules gain energy and, thus, move faster. As they move faster, they come in contact with the sugar more often, causing it to dissolve faster.
So, $$1^{st}$$ is to increase the temperature or heat up the solution.
Dissolving sugar in water will occur more quickly if the water is stirred. The stirring allows fresh solvent molecules to continually be in contact with the solute.
So, $$2^{nd}$$ way is to stir the solvent.
When a solute dissolves, the action takes place only at the surface of each particle. When the total surface area of the solute particles is increased, the solute dissolves more rapidly. Breaking a solute into smaller pieces increases its surface area and increases its rate of solution.
So, $$3^{rd}$$ is to increase the surface area of the sugar.

Hence, three ways to make a sugar cube dissolve more quickly in water are
- Increase the temperature or heat up the solution.
- Stir the solvent.
- Increase the surface area of the sugar.

Note: Amount of solute already dissolved also affects the rate of solution, that is, when you have very little solute in the solution, dissolving takes place quickly. When you have a lot of solute in the solution, dissolving takes place more slowly. For solid solutes, changes in pressure have practically no effect on solubility.