Which would weigh more? Kool-Aid or water?

Factual Questions
1

My brother asked me a question that I can’t answer:
If you take a gallon of water, and compare it to a gallon of water with Kool-Aid power mixed in (which would techinically be slightly less than a gallon of water to account for the mix), which would weigh more?

2

It’s be a cool, easy to do experiment at home. Give it a try and report back!

3

good question.

4

Im going to say the gallon with koolaid and heres why.

You can if something is more or less dense than water by putting something in it and seeing if it floats or sinks. If you put koolaid mix in, it initially will sink… or if you mix it all up, and let it sit for a day, it will eventually settle on the bottom. (at least thats how i remember) So you could assume that koolaid mix is more dense than water and would likely weigh more than water. Thus the gallon with koolaid in it would weigh slightly more. This is just a guess though :slight_smile:

5

Density and refractive indexes of sucrose solutions.

The link doesn’t say, but the values are for aqueous solutions at 20°C.

IIRC, Kool-aid calls for 1 cup of sugar in 2 quarts water.
A cup of sugar masses about 200 grams, and 2 quarts is 1.89 liters, or 1890 cm[sup]3[/sup].
200/1890 = 10.6%, so the density of Kool-aid will be about 1.040 g/cm[sup]3[/sup].

6

The answer in Kool-aid plus water. Kool-aid is essentially dextrose, a simple sugar. If you imagine that in a gallon of water there are X number of water molecules that fill up the volume we call “a gallon.” In kool-aid plus water some of those water molecules are displaced by dextrose molecules, which are larger, and therefore heavier.

So, in a similar volume (gallon) comprised on dextrose plus water versus water alone, the admixture is heavier.

This explanation doesn’t take into account that since dextrose molecules are larger there are fewer of them, relative to water, the fact that dextrose is significantly heavier than water should negate that error.
When you see Kool-aid at the bottom of the jar, it has to do with soluablity of sugar in water, not weight. Chances are you made the Kool-aid in warmer water (tap) and let it sit in the fridge. As the water cools, it holds less sugar. Similar to iced tea requiring a ton of sugar to sweeten compared to hot tea (use a simple syrup instead!).

Test it!