To cook food faster, most housewives add salt to the pan before boiling water. In their opinion, this will speed up the cooking process. Others, on the contrary, argue that tap water boils much faster. To answer such a question, it is necessary to turn to physical and chemical laws. Why does salt water boil faster than ordinary, and is it really so? Let's find out! Details in the article below.
Why salt water boils faster: the physical laws of boiling
In order to understand what processes begin to occur when the liquid is heated, you need to know what scientists mean by boiling process technology.
Any water, ordinary or salty, begins to boil in exactly the same way. This process goes through several stages:
- small bubbles begin to form on the surface;
- increase in the size of the bubbles;
- their subsidence to the bottom;
- the liquid becomes cloudy;
- boiling process.
Why does salt water boil faster?
Proponents of salted water say that the theory of heat transfer works when heated. However, the heat released after the destruction of the molecular lattice does not give a large effect. Much more important is the hydration process. At this time, the formation of strong molecular bonds. So why does salt water boil faster?
When they become very strong, air bubbles are much more difficult to move. It takes a long time to move up or down. In other words, if there is salt in the water, the air circulation slows down. As a result, salt water boils a little slower. Air bubbles are prevented from moving by molecular bonds. That is why salt water does not boil faster than non-salt water.
Or maybe you can do without salt?
The debate about how quickly salt or tap water boils can last forever. If you look at the practical application, there will not be much difference. This is easily explained by the laws of physics. Water begins to boil when the temperature reaches 100 degrees. This value may become different if air density parameters change. For example, water high in the mountains begins to boil at temperatures below 100 degrees. In domestic conditions, the most important indicator is the power of the gas burner, as well as the heating temperature of the electric stove. The speed of heating the liquid, as well as the time required for boiling, depends on these parameters.
At the stake, water begins to boil after a few minutes, since the wood burned emits much more heat than a gas stove, and the area of the heated surface is much larger. From this we can draw a simple conclusion: in order to achieve rapid boiling, you need to turn on the gas burner at maximum power, and not add salt.
Any water begins to boil at the same temperature (100 degrees). But the boiling speed can be different. Salt water will begin to boil later due to air bubbles, which are much more difficult to break the molecular bonds. I must say that the boiling of distilled water is faster than ordinary tap water. The fact is that in purified, distilled water there are no strong molecular bonds, no extraneous impurities, so it begins to heat up much faster.
Conclusion
The boiling time of ordinary or salt water is several seconds. It has no effect on the speed of cooking. Therefore, do not try to save time on boiling, it is better to start strictly following the laws of cooking. To make the dish tasty, you need to salt it at a certain time. That is why salt water does not always boil faster!