1. Salt, Sugar, or Baking Soda?
By:
Emily Nagle
Grade 9

2. 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.

3. Problem
Does adding salt to water make it boil faster than other chemicals?
Talk about where I got my other methods.

4. Research Received information from the sites: http://wiki.answers.com
and
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.

5. Hypothesis
Salt does make water boil faster than other solutes.

6. Experimental Design
Experiment Variable:
Adding Solutes to water

7. Experimental Design Experimental Group: Arm and Hammer baking soda
Morton Iodized Salt
Domino Sugar

8. Experimental Design
Control Group:
Water without any solute.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Recording the Information
Step 10: Stop the stopwatch
Step 11: Record the time

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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
The room temperature
The amount of altitude
The type of stove used (quality)

16. 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
170
232
* The time is in seconds*

17. My Data: Trial Results
* The time is in seconds*

18. Conclusion
My data does support my hypothesis that salt does make water boil faster than other methods.

19. 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.

20. The End
By: Emily Nagle

21. 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

22. 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
Pencil or pen

23. My Sources
My grandmother, Jean Beery
Home Economics teacher, Mrs. O’Connor
Pasta Recipes (a cooking book)