Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I did my science fair project on Does temperature affect crystal growth? I have done my testing (with borax)... and the colder the place the more crystals there were. Why is that?

Hi,

Here is a Science Buddies project writeup on your experiment:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p082.shtml

The introduction paragraphs amswer your question - borax solubility in water decreases with temperature, so as a saturated solution of borax cools, more and more borax has to come out of solution as crystals.

Thiese web pages have graphs of borax solubility vs. temperature:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01873a043

http://books.google.com/books?id=IqIwAA ... ve&f=false

I hope this answers your question. I wish you every success with your project.

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson