If you mix 16 cups of water with 1 cup of salt, is the mixture 16c? 17c? 16 cups and change?

Question

Assumptions: room temperature, nothing goofy (a vacuum or something) and that the entire cup of salt would dissolve. So, I guess my question is: do the salt molecules fit, on a molecular level, entirely between the water molecules and, thus, not increase the volume of the resulting solution?

Thanks! :)

Answer 1

The volume remains the same, since the NaCl molecules get in between the the gaps created by the water molecules in between 2 successive ones!!!

Answer 2

The volume would change but I believe it would be relatively insignificant.