Question

Kylie has two glasses with equal volumes of pure water. She adds 40 g of sugar to one of the glasses of water and 40 g of salt to the other. When sugar is dissolved in water, it does not change the number of ions present. When salt is dissolved in water, however, the number of ions significantly increases.

Which of the following is true about the electrical conductivity of Kylie's two solutions?

A)The solution of sugar water will have a higher conductivity than the solution of salt water.
B) Pure water will have a higher conductivity than both the sugar water and the salt water.
C) The solution of salt water will have a higher conductivity than the solution of sugar water.
D) The solution of salt water and the solution of sugar water will have the exact same conductivity.

Answer 1

The solution of salt water will have a higher conductivity than the solution of sugar water.

Answer 2

Answer : Option C) The solution of salt water will have a higher conductivity than the solution of sugar water.

Explanation :

When salt (NaCl) is dissolved in water it forms cations of
`Na^(+)` and
`Cl^(-)` which are electrolytic ions. This occurs because the NaCl is a strong electrolyte in nature as it can get easily dissociated into its ions. Also, solutions of strong electrolytes are observed to be good conductors of electricity as they contain a comparatively high concentration of ions.

But in case of sugar, it is a non-electrolyte, which means it does not produces ions when dissolved in water. As the solution of sugar contains molecules of sucrose, but does not gets dissociated into ions. This absence of ions in a sugar aqueous solution makes it a non electrolytic in nature.