Science · 6 pages · 12 min
Why salt water conducts better than pure water
Dissolved salt supplies mobile ions, and nearly pure water has almost none.
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From the opening
Salt water conducts better than pure water because dissolved salt separates into charged ions that drift and carry current. Pure water has almost none of those carriers, only the rare ions made when a water molecule splits on its own. The opening covers why ions carry the current, why pure water has so few, and how sugar water differs.
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Inside
- Why ions carry the current
- Why pure water has so few
- How sugar water differs
- Why brine is still not a metal
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Ionic conduction by dissolved salt in water
- The slight self-ionization of pure water