A drop of ink is placed in water and left undisturbed. After some time, the whole water turns blue. Explain the process involved and why it happens even without stirring.
Answer (2)
The blue color of the water occurs due to diffusion, where ink molecules spread from an area of high concentration to even out in the water. This process happens naturally, as water molecules are constantly moving and interacting with the ink molecules. Eventually, the ink becomes uniformly distributed throughout the water, causing the entire volume to change color.
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The process you're observing when a drop of ink spreads throughout the water is called diffusion . This is a key concept in Chemistry and an example of how particles move from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration until they are evenly distributed.
Here's a step-by-step breakdown of the process:
Initial High Concentration: When you place a drop of ink in water, the ink molecules are at a high concentration where the drop is.
Movement of Molecules: Molecules in both the ink and the water are constantly moving and bumping into each other due to the energy they possess. This is why the ink molecules start to spread out from the high concentration area to where there are fewer ink molecules.
Spread Through Diffusion: Without any need for stirring, these random movements lead the ink molecules to disperse throughout the water. Diffusion doesn't require an external force; it happens naturally.
Equilibrium: Over time, the ink spreads evenly throughout the water so that the concentration of ink is the same everywhere in the solution. The water turns uniformly blue, indicating that equilibrium has been reached.
Factors Affecting Diffusion: Temperature and the size of the ink molecules can affect the rate of diffusion. Warmer temperatures generally increase the rate of diffusion because molecules move faster when heated.
In summary, diffusion is a natural process driven by the inherent motion of molecules, and that's why the ink spreads throughout the water even when left undisturbed.
