you have two beakers one filled to the 100 ml mark with sugar and the other filled to the 100 ml mark with water. you pour the sugar and all the water together in a bigger beaker and stir until all the sugar is compeletely dissovlved. what happens to the mass of the solution?

mass sugar + mass water = total mass assuming no water is lost to evaporation. The volume, however, (although you didn't ask about that) probably will be more than 100 mL.

When you pour the sugar and water into a bigger beaker and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, the mass of the solution remains the same. This is because there is no addition or removal of matter during the dissolving process.

To understand why the mass remains constant, let's break it down step by step:

1. Initially, you have two beakers: one filled with 100 ml of sugar and the other filled with 100 ml of water. Each substance has its own mass.
2. When you mix the two substances together, the total volume of the solution becomes 200 ml, but the mass does not change at this point.
3. As you stir the solution, the sugar molecules disperse evenly throughout the water, forming a homogenous mixture. This process is called dissolution.
4. The sugar molecules come in contact with water molecules, and due to the attractive forces between them, the sugar molecules break apart and spread out in the liquid.
5. Throughout this process of dissolution, no matter is gained or lost. The sugar particles are simply separated and dispersed within the water molecules, leading to a homogenous mixture called a solution.
6. Therefore, the total mass of the solution remains the same as the sum of the masses of the sugar and water used initially.

In conclusion, when you dissolve sugar in water, the mass of the solution remains constant.