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How much can you dissolve in a glass of water, and does warming it help?
Solutions lab · Last updated: 16 October 2026
How much sugar can a glass of water really hold? In this 3D lab, you keep dissolving a solute until the water will take no more, then see what warming changes. It turns everyday kitchen moments, like making tea or syrup, into a clear lesson on solutions, concentration and solubility.
What you'll discover
- A solution can only hold so much solute before it becomes saturated and the extra settles out.
- Concentration tells you how much solute is packed into a given amount of solution.
- Warming water lets much more sugar dissolve, but makes surprisingly little difference to salt.
The science in plain words
A solution forms when a solute, such as sugar or salt, spreads evenly through a solvent, such as water. Particles break away from the solid crystal and mix in between the water molecules until they are far too small to see. Concentration describes how much solute is dissolved in a set amount of solution, for example grams per 100 millilitres.
There is always a limit. When no more solute will dissolve at a given temperature, the solution is saturated and any extra simply sinks to the bottom. That maximum amount is called the solubility, and every substance has its own. At room temperature about 36 grams of table salt dissolve in 100 grams of water, while sugar is far more soluble, at roughly 200 grams.
Warming usually helps solids dissolve because faster-moving water molecules pull particles away from the crystal more easily. Hot water can hold well over twice as much sugar as cold water, which is how syrups and sweets are made. Salt is an exception: its solubility barely rises with temperature. Gases behave the other way round, which is why a warm fizzy drink goes flat sooner. Stirring makes a solid dissolve faster, but it does not raise the limit.
Where it fits
Common questions
What is a saturated solution?
A saturated solution is one that holds as much solute as it possibly can at that temperature. If you add more, it will not dissolve and will collect at the bottom instead. Warming the solution often lets a little more dissolve, and cooling it can make crystals form.
Does sugar dissolve faster in hot water?
Yes. In hot water the molecules move faster, so they knock sugar particles away from the crystals more quickly. Hot water can also hold far more sugar in total than cold water, which is why recipes for syrup heat the sugar and water together.
Why doesn't salt dissolve much better in hot water?
Salt's solubility hardly changes with temperature. Around 36 grams dissolve in 100 grams of water at room temperature, and only a few grams more near boiling. The balance between how strongly the salt holds together and how strongly water attracts it shifts very little as it warms.
Related labs
- Crystal Growth: Grow a salt crystal on a thread: why does it come out as a neat cube?
- Diffusion: A drop of dye in still jelly: how does it spread with nothing stirring it?
- Osmosis: Water moves through a thin skin towards the sugary side. Can it push itself uphill?
See all chemistry labs or every Taz science lab.
Try it yourself
The Solutions lab is one of the interactive 3D science labs inside Taz. Change one thing, predict what will happen, then run it and watch. Labs open after you sign in.