Sorry, I just one more question about Chemistry. I am doing a lab, and I don't know what to call these things?
I have to dissolve some Polident in water and i want to know what they are called in more sciency terms
Like, would the Polident be called the Dissolvent, because its being dissolved? And is the water a solvent, or solute? or what?
water is the solvent
Polident is the solute
The water is the solvent. The Polident is the solute.
Solutions consist of a solvent (the stuff doing the dissolving) and a solute (the stuff being dissolved). In general, the liquid is called the solvent and the solid is called the solute. BUT what to do if both are liquids or both gases or both solids. If both are liquids or both gases or both solids USUALLY we call the one in larger quantity the solvent and one in lesser amount the solute. In air, for example, we would call N2 the solvent and O2, He, Ar, CO2, moisture, etc as solutes. However, most of the time we don't even think of air as being a solution and we just say "air". If we have a solution of 1 mL CCl4 and 99 mL hexane, we call the hexane the solvent and CCl4 is the solute or we may say a 1% solution of CCl4 in hexane (assuming a total of 100 mL and I say that to be accurate not to confuse you BECAUSE volumes don't add up sometimes).
In the context of your lab, the terminology you are referring to is based on the concepts of solute, solvent, and solution.
The solute is the substance that is being dissolved in a solution. In your case, the Polident would be considered the solute because it is the substance being dissolved.
The solvent is the substance in which the solute is dissolved. It is the component of the solution that is present in the greater amount. In your case, water is the solvent.
So, to answer your question directly, Polident would be the solute, and water would be the solvent in your experiment.
Remember, the solute is the substance that undergoes dissolution, and the solvent is the substance that dissolves the solute. When combined, they form a homogeneous mixture called a solution.