Video: Characteristics of a Molecule of Salt for Kids

Characteristics of a Molecule of Salt for Kids

A molecule of salt has a few distinguishing characteristics that are absolutely fascinating. Learn about the characteristics of a molecule of salt for kids with help from a teacher with over 20 years of experience in this free video clip.

Video Transcript

Hi my name is Janice, I teach science here in Clearwater, Florida. And I'm here to talk to you today about the characteristics of a salt molecule. Only really salt doesn't form molecule. Salt is actually something that forms what we call an ionic compound. Because it's made of ions. Now ions are things that have either positive or negative charges. So actually when salt forms it forms from two elements, sodium and chlorine. Sodium has a positive charge that it wants to, from electrons it wants to give away. And chlorine has a negative charge from electrons that it wants to get. So sodium actually gives an electron to chlorine and that way they're both happy. They kind of have their outer shells filled. And that creates these positive and negative charges that hold them together. Now because ionic compounds are made of ionic bounds they have certain properties. For instance, they're very, very strong. They are almost like a brick wall. It's almost impossible to break them apart. And because of that they have what we call really high melting points. You have to heat salt to a really, really high temperature to get it to melt. One of the other characteristics of ionic compounds is that they're very brittle. So if you have something that you are able to bend into a bunch of different shapes it's not going to be made of an ionic compound. An ionic compound is going to crack, or splinter, or fracture when you apply some pressure to it. So again ions like salt are going to have high melting temperatures. They are going to be brittle and they are going to form crystal solids like rock candy. Or you probably seen little crystals on your, on the side of your boat or something like that if you've every been around saltwater. And because of that they're going to crack or break. And those are the characteristics of a salt compound. I'm Janice have a great day.

Characteristics of a Molecule of Salt for Kids

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