Video narration
Where did the sugar go when it vanished into your glass of water? Stirring makes it seem to disappear faster, but it only speeds how quickly the sugar dissolves. The sugar has not disappeared. Its particles have spread between the water particles, throughout the liquid, becoming too small and separated for your eyes to see. Here is the key vocabulary: the sugar is the solute, the substance that dissolves. The water is the solvent, the liquid doing the dissolving. Together, solute and solvent make a solution: sugar spread evenly through water. Dissolving does not create a new substance. The sugar is still there; if the water is removed, sugar can be recovered. It stayed the same substance the whole time. So, where did the sugar go? It spread through the water as tiny particles, forming a solution-it did not disappear.