How to predict the volume of a solution?

[mishima]

TL;DR

Given a certain mass solute, can you predict the increase in volume of solvent?

I've never had a good understanding of this. Say I am dissolving 20g sodium chloride into 1L of water. Is the only way to theoretically predict the final volume of solution to consult density tables?

edit: I realize this isn't a practical situation, and that typically you are making a solution of a given concentration by first starting with a small amount of solvent and diluting up to a certain volume. But I am still curious for the purposes of planning experiments and the requisite glassware.

 

[Borek]

There are theoretical models describing volume changes, but from what I remember in the end they all use some experimental parameters, so are hardly helpful. Using just the density tables is much easier.

Shameless advertising plug: my concentration calculator has the density tables built in, so it does all necessary calculations automatically (for a single component solutions).