salt: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	common salt • table salt • sodium chloride

Photos and Videos

Cluster of translucent, white salt crystals with sharp cubic shapes viewed under a microscope at high magnification against a dark background.

map of ocean salinity, 2011

A mound of white sea salt drying on dark red clay in the salt marshes of Guerande, Brittany, France, with shallow evaporation ponds in the background.

sodium chloride

Weathered wooden pillars encrusted with crystallized salt stand at the edge of Urmia Salt Lake in Iran, with shallow, reflective water and a distant horizon.

Vertical diagram illustrating the Born-Haber cycle for sodium chloride, showing enthalpy changes in kilojoules per mole at each step from solid sodium and chlorine gas to solid NaCl, with labeled energy levels and transitions between reactants, ions, and final compound.

crystal structures

Figure 1: Interrelationships of salt structures (see text)

How does road salt work in the winter?

Why is seawater so salty?

The effects of too much salt in your diet

How different solutions conduct electricity

Fascinating facts about crystals

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Topics

open crystallization Brikettage Why Does Salt Melt Ice?Why do people throw salt over their shoulder?halide inorganic compound salt potassium chloride ammonium chloride Rochelle salt organometallic compound oxyacid sulfuric acid fluoride carbonic acid silicone hydrogen cyanide

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