A student is trying to decide between hot and iced coffee but refuses to drink it without a good amount of sweetener. If the student were to add sugar to 500mL of hot coffee, and separately to 500mL of iced coffee, which drink would dissolve more solid sugar before becoming saturated?

Answer 1

Generally, the solubility of a substance increases with temperature. Therefore, in this case, the hot coffee would dissolve more solid sugar before becoming saturated compared to the iced coffee. The hotter temperature of the hot coffee would provide more thermal energy, allowing the sugar particles to disperse and dissolve more easily.