By:
Emily Nagle
Grade 9
Introduction
 Do you ever cook pasta? To me it seems like
it takes the water forever to boil.
 That’s why I choose this for my experiment.
 To put the old myth to the test.
Problem
Does adding salt to
water make it boil
faster than other
chemicals?
Research
Received information from the sites:
http://wiki.answers.com
and
http://answers.yahoo.com/question
 They both stated that when salt is added to the water it
makes the time to reach the boiling point faster
 These aren't trusted sites. Therefore I wanted to find
out for my self if they were really true.
Hypothesis
Salt does make water
boil faster than other
solutes.
Experimental Design
Experiment Variable:
 Adding Solutes to water
Experimental Design
Experimental Group:
Arm and Hammer baking soda
Morton Iodized Salt
Domino Sugar
Experimental Design
Control Group:
Water without any solute.
Preparing the Water
 Label each metal pot with the numbers 1-3
(1=salt, 2=sugar, 3= baking soda)
 Measure out 230 ml of the water into a
measuring cup
 Pour the 230 ml of water into the pot
Adding the solute
 Measure out 15 grams of salt, sugar, or
baking soda and place it into the pot of
water
 Take the temperature of the water
with a thermometer and make sure the
water starts at 21 degrees Celsius
At the start and finish
•Turn the dial for the right stove burner
to High
•Start the stopwatch as soon as the dial
lands on the High heat
•When the water reaches the 100 ⁰ C,
turn off the stove
Recording the Information
Step 10: Stop the stopwatch
Step 11: Record the time
Cleaning up materials
 Clean up the materials safely and with caution
 Make sure that you check to see if the stove isn’t
hot anymore
 When it’s not warm anymore, remove the pot
and pour it into a sink.
 Wipe down the stove and put away materials
you don’t need.
Repeating Steps
 The next day at the same time, place a new
numbered pot on the stove
 Repeat for 3 trails of each solute and for the
control variable
Experimental Design
 Control Variables:
 Amount of water used
 The starting water temperature
 The size of the cooking pots
 Brand of the dry ingredients used
 Amount of each dry ingredient added
 Time of day
My Data: Times to Boiling
Event:
Water
Salt
Baking soda Sugar
Trial 1
169
173
167
233
Trial 2
175
171
163
236
Trial 3
172
165
181
226
Average
172
170
170
232
* The time is in seconds*
My Data: Trial Results
* The time is in seconds*
Conclusion
My data does support my
hypothesis that salt does make
water boil faster than other
methods.
Next time I would…
 End the experiment when the water begins
to boil, not at 100 c.
 Add more or less of the dry ingredient to
the water so it would make the water boil
faster.
 The amounts of solutes (salt and baking
soda) used, only increased boil time by 1
percent.
By: Emily Nagle
Experimental Procedure
 Step 1: Gather materials
 Deer Park bottled water
 Stopwatch
 Morton Iodized salt
 Domino sugar
 Arm and hammer baking soda
 3 round metal cooking pots each 16.5 centimeters inside
 Oven with stove top (electric/newer model)
 Pencil or pen
Experimental Procedure
 Step 1: Gather materials continued..
 Liquid measuring device (holds at least 230 ml)
 Standard set of measuring spoons (holds at least
15 grams)
 Pampered Chief digital thermometer
My Sources
 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090
718115652AAnvaHh
 My grandmother, Jean Beery
 Home Economics teacher, Mrs. O’Connor
 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_adding_salt_to_wat
er_make_it_boil_faster
 Pasta Recipes (a cooking book)