I study at the art academy in Rotterdam and am doing a project in which I research water, in the visual field. Now I had seen a documentary a few days ago in which they filmed a subterranean river and there was talk of salt and fresh water floating on each other. I was wondering if it’s possible to recreate that because I thought it looked really cool.
Answer
Hello,
the trick is to dissolve as much salt as possible in water. At 20 °C you can dissolve about 35 g of kitchen salt in 100 ml of water. (This does not increase much with increasing temperature, so there is no point in heating). This solution has a greater density (is “heavier”) than regular water.
You must now first pour a layer of salt water into a cup or bowl.
Pour VERY CAREFULLY on this! a layer of plain water. It is best to pour along a spoon or something similar to disturb the bottom layer as little as possible. You now get two layers that float on top of each other.
If you shake, the layers will naturally mix together.
Good luck!
Answered by
Dr Etienne Jooken
Chemistry
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
.