Salt
From RationalWiki
A salt is a compound with a strong ionic bond, making it soluble in any liquid consisting of polar molecules (the most popular being water).
The best known salt is NaCl, sodium chloride - common table salt. All salts taste salty.
[edit] Importance of salt
Salts are very important to biological functions, and so have a long history importance in human politics, and usage in common phrases.
Here be a few of those phrases:
- Oh well, back to the salt mines!
- Take this with a grain of salt.
- He's salt of the earth, he is.
- The word "salary" derives from Roman soldiers being paid in salt.
- Salty language (although this more likely derives from calling ocean sailors "salts")
[edit] Usage of salt
Salt was used to destroy the usefulness of agricultural land once conquered - the crops would be burned to the ground and the soil "salted" to poison it.
Salt is used to melt snow and ice on roads and paths; various different salts have reasons making them better for this. This works because water with a salt solution has a lower freezing point; also the process of dissolving the salt releases some heat. The "ideal" ice melting product would be reasonably cheap, yield a very low freezing point when dissolved in water, have a high exothermic energy release while dissolving, and not be harmful to plants, concrete or road tar, and materials used in vehicles. For instance, potassium or nitrogen salts are less harmful (or even good) to neighboring plants, and calcium chloride is often used because it is a better "melter".
It has been said that throwing salt over your shoulder can be good luck.
