A Solution Story
This is a story about a pair of
friends named solvent and solute. Like most friends, solvent and solute are
always together. Their friendship roles are very different, though. Solvent
likes to domineer over the relationship—solvent is what does the dissolving.
Solute pretty much just follows solvent’s lead—solute is what is being
dissolved. Whenever people at school see solute and solvent together, they call
them a solution—a solution is a homogeneous mixture that has a solid dissolved in
water. Now you would think that solute and solvent always get along, but there
are times that their solubility is a little off. What we mean by their
solubility is the measure of how well a solute dissolves in a solvent.
When solute is really pouring his
heart into his friendship with solute, their relationship becomes
saturated—saturated is when a solution has dissolved as much solute as
possible. When solute is not pouring his heart into his friendship with
solvent, their relationship becomes unsaturated—unsaturated is when there is a
solution that can still dissolve more solute. This wraps up the story about the
pair of friends named solvent and solute.
