Question

This week and last, we've be talking a lot about liquid properties. For me, these always tie in to cooking. Often times when we are boiling water for pasta or some other food, we add salt. Adding salt has a number of effects. It changes the boiling point as well as lowers the specific heat capacity. What are the implications of this in your cooking?

Answer 1

Answer:

It makes the pasta to get hot faster and boil quicker.

Explanation:

Adding salt to water actually raises the boiling point of the water, due to a phenomenon called boiling point elevation. Essentially, adding any non-volatile solute such as salt to a liquid causes a decrease in the liquid’s vapour pressure. A liquid boils when the vapour pressure above it equals atmospheric pressure, so a lower vapour pressure means you need a higher temperature to boil the water. The reason salt makes water boil faster has to do with specific heat capacities, or the energy it takes to raise the temperature of a substance. Salt ions dissolved in water bind to water molecules, holding them stable and making it harder for them to move around. As a result, the non-salt bound water molecules receive more of the energy provided by the stove, and therefore they get hot faster and boil quicker.

Answer 2

Answer:Adding salt in boiling water lowers water's specific heat capacity however it also raises its boiling point and therefore increases the temperature at which the water takes to boils (and hence increases the time taken to cook food)

Explanation:When salt is added to boiling water,the specific heat capacity of water(which is generally high) decreases and hence less energy is required to heat the water to same temperature.However salt water has a high boiling point which means once the salt is added to boiling water,its boiling temperature actually rises.The salt water needs a higher temperature before it actually starts to boil.So in short salt water boils at a higher temperature than an unsalty water.