Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Csanchez635 on January 12, 2013, 02:30:46 PM
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If your doing a density tower, does it really matter the order of density that you pour the liquids in? I mean wouldn't they just automatically rearrange themselves by the order of their densities?
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If they are miscible with each other, then they could end up mixed. Obviously, two adjacent layers won't be miscible, or the tower wouldn't work. Consider this question: what does like dissolves like really mean? How do we describe the nature of miscible and immiscible liquids?
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well considering that all the liquids would be of different densities, so it would not matter what order you put them in the tube, the liquid with the highest density and the second and third and fourth would just automatically form itself in the right place right?
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Arkcon has pointed you to the answer - typically, like dissolves like. This usually means that you need to alternate polar and non-polar liquids. If you simply poured them all together, all of the polar liquids would dissolve in each other, and all the non-polar ones would dissolve in each other, and you would only get two layers. So between two polar liquids of different densities, you need a non-polar liquid of an intermediate density.