Salt Crystal Formation For Fun!

The formation of salt crystals takes weeks or even months to grow. I thought I would share with you one of the many home science projects we have been doing at our house. Seems we always have one or two projects going on. It is just something our family really likes to do.
While reading about salt crystals, we found some projects to do at home. There are various ways in which one might achieve salt crystal formation ...with the outcome being a bit different in each instance. For our current project, which was started months ago, we started with a small glass jar. We heated to boiling about a cup of water and a couple of tablespoons of table salt. To this we added some blue food coloring (my daughter's color of choice, though any color could be used) and poured all contents in the jar.  We sat the jar on a window sill, undisturbed.
Now, let me be the first to tell you that there is some truth to the old saying "a watch pot never boils" as waiting for the crystals to form was much like watching paint dry. I would like to have a dollar for each time my daughter wanted to look to see if any crystals had yet formed. I might be able to afford something really nice. (You parents with little children know just what I mean, I am sure!)

Several days had gone by when the first crystals could be seen forming on the inside of the jar. Many months have gone by and our salt crystal formation has made quite a lot of progress. I thought I would share a few of the pictures with you.

This is a look at the outside of the jar where our project is taking place. As you can see from the picture, the salt crystals are nearing the top of the jar now.

Here are a couple views looking down into the jar. Although you can see the formations
on the side of jar, sadly, the camera didn't pick up the beauty of the crystals that can be seen. They really are kind of pretty.

As you can see from the view above, the salt projections are growing inward. This might present a problem, at some point, when additional water, salt and food coloring need to be added.

In this picture, you can see how sheer looking the crystal formations near the top look as they first begin to form and climb. It is quite a different look later when layer upon layer form.

This picture is interesting in that the salt formation that can be seen on the left of the jar looks almost as if it is folding over as it grows toward the center.

I hope you enjoyed seeing our salt crystal formation pictures. Perhaps in a few more months, I will share another picture to update you on what the formation looks like then.
Thanks for visiting my blog today.