Question

How can you determine if the solutions made in a lab were saturated?

Answer 1

With difficulty....

Explanation:

Saturation with respect to solute and a solvent DEFINES an equilibrium conditions, namely that...

`"Solid solute"stackrel("given solvent, temperature")rightleftharpoons"Solute in solution"`

And this condition of equilibrium SPECIFIES that the solvent contains THE SAME amount of dissolved solute as would be in equilibrium with UNDISSOLVED solute. I agree that this is wordy, but A level (and 1st year students) very poorly understand and express this condition...and a proferred definition of `"solvent holds all the solute that it can"` is INADEQUATE and INCORRECT AND WOULD BE MARKED WRONG....

A supersaturated solution holds an amount of solute GREATER than that amount that would be in equilibrium with undissolved solute. And you should be introduced to examples of supersaturated solutions...

See here and links for more of the same spray...

And so how do you determine whether the solution is saturated...? Give the slurry of solvent and solute a good blast with a heat gun....scratch the sides...and let it cool... At the end, the supernatant solution on TOP of the precipitated solute is saturated with respect to the solvent. And please consult your text for their definition....