Say you dissolve 60 mL of sugar in 60 mL of water. What will be (approx.) the total volume of the solution?

Question

i.e., how much will the volume of the solution differ from 120 mL?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

its not possible to dissolve that much sugar in water.... it will become super saturated and the sugar will drop out of the solution. it is a trick question.
though the total volume of the container would read 120ml

Answer 2

The solubility of sugar in water at room temperature is about 1g/ml, and bulk granulated sugar is actually less dense than water, weighing about 0.88 g/ml. So sugar should be fully soluble in an equal volume of water at room temperature.

You are correct to suspect that the volume of the solution will be less than the sum of the bulk volumes of the solution and solute. This is true for at least one main reason: the 60 mL of sugar is not pure sugar. You have all these little sugar crystals with sharp corners and odd shapes piled all together, with a little bit of air sitting between them where their edges aren't perfectly flush (which is everywhere). When you pour the sugar into the water, the air doesn't get added to the solution. The density of bulk sugar is only about 55.5% the density of a sucrose crystal. So you're really only adding 60*.555 = 33.3 mL of solid sugar material.

I believe that the volume of the solution will therefore be about 93.3 mL. However, I'm not certain; it's possible that solvation has a measurable effect on the density of the solution.