Why don’t oil and water mix? - John Pollard
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TEDEd Animation
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Salt dissolves in water; oil does not. But why? You can think of that glass of water as a big, bumpin' dance party where the water molecules are always switching dance partners -- and they'd much rather dance with a salt ion. John Pollard explains how two chemistry principles, energetics and entropy, rule the dance floor.
There are compounds similar to salt that do not dissolve in water. An example is calcium carbonate which is comprised of calcium and carbonate ions. Can you build an explanation using the dance analogy from the video for why this substance does not dissolve in water? (Hint: The ions are very attracted to water as is the water very attracted to the ions…but the stuff still doesn’t dissolve.) After you have built your dance analogy explanation, try to build an explanation that doesn’t not use any analogies or personify the ions and molecules.
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Meet The Creators
- Educator John Pollard
- Animator Andrew Foerster
- Sound Designer Devin Polaski
- Narrator Addison Anderson
