Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have had trouble getting definitions for certain vocabulary words for my science fair project that I understand. They are...

Solvent
Solution
Mole

Any help with these, or anything else you think I would need to know is much appreciated.

Hi ctkcasey16-

Those are fairly basic terms and easy to define, but it would help folks here to put them in context if you could describe your science fair project. Can you describe your project - what you're working on and how far you've gotten in the process?

Howard

Hi, my science fair project is on the chemistry of ice cream, and how to lower the freezing point of it.

Here's the link:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p013.shtml

I'm pretty new to the whole thing, I've just started the research paper for it.

Hi again ctkcasey16-

You will need to look these up on the internet and see the full definition of these terms. I'll give you the short version. When you mix something into something else, you're making a solution. If you like powdered drink mix for example, the finished product is a solution. The water is the solvent, and the flavor powder is one of the solutes. It would be too tart to drink without sugar, so sugar would be a second solute. If you make salt water solution by adding salt to water, which is the solvent and which is the solute?

A mole is a way of measuring a lot of something very small, like a number of salt molecules. A mole of something contains approximately 6*10^23 molecules of that substance. When you search the term, you'll find specific numbers, that this number has a name and the history of the physicist it's named after. Its important to know because it gives us a way of expressing a very specific amount of salt in a salt solution for example. It's not exact enough to say 'a cup' of salt because different salt formulations will take more or less space depending on the shape of the salt.

You can find a lot of info on these by searching. Please give that a try and see what you turn up.

Howard