Why Does Cyclohexane Float on Water When Its Molecular Mass is Higher?

  • Context:
  • Thread starter Thread starter markosheehan
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Water
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 5K views
markosheehan
Messages
133
Reaction score
0
Why does cyclohexane float on water.? When I add up their relative molecular masses water has a lower value than cyclohexane?
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
markosheehan said:
Why does cyclohexane float on water.? When I add up their relative molecular masses water has a lower value than cyclohexane?

Floating occurs when the mass density is lower.
So even though water consists of smaller molecules with less mass (10 versus 84 g/mol), water still has a greater density.
What could the difference be?
For the record, this topic also came up in http://mathhelpboards.com/other-topics-22/ethanol-water-21217.html of yours.
 
its to do with the hydrogen bonding .
thanks