why is it that sand does not dissovle in water?

Question

much detail as possible please

Answer 1

ITS NOT SOLUBLE......PERIOD

Answer 2

Sand is primarily quartz crystals and that is some pretty hard stuff. It doesn't dissolve in water because it is not water soluble. Water is not an acid or a base; it sits in the middle of the scale.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand
"The most common constituent of sand, in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings, is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz, which, because of its chemical inertness and considerable hardness, is resistant to weathering."

We see a lot of things that are water soluble because so much of our own chemistry is based on water. For example milk is mostly water, evaporated milk has most of the water removed so it is thicker, dehydrated milk is a powder. If you add water to the dehydrated milk (re-hydration) then you end up with liquid milk again.

Most of the elements are not water soluble, for example most metals. Sodium will explode in water, but gold, tin, platinum, mercury, and silver won't be affected at all; neither will most forms of silicon. There is little more to say than that.

I am not positive, but I am sure that there is an acid that can dissolve silicon, and so sand in that acid would be soluble.

Answer 3

large pieces Hate to disappoint the people who think that glass/sand does not dissolve in water. Sand is crystalline SiO2. Fused Quartz is melted SiO2. As you raise the temperature of water, it becomes very corrosive to quartz or sand. In fact, it becomes more corrosive than most of the common acids. The early methods of generating crystalline quartz with controlled size and axis orientation were to generate large pieces that could be cut into slices for quartz frequently crystals. Natural crystals had a terrible frequency vs. temperature response. The growth chamber took fine quartz and water and a small amount of chemicals and raised it to high temperature and pressure and grew pieces of quartz about 3 inches in diameter. These were sliced into thin slices for frequency generation. Thhey were much purer than natural quartz and much better frequency generaters.

Answer 4

because it is small particles of glass and rock, they can be eroded away but not dissolved