Why are the salts in sports drinks classified as electrolytes?

1 Answer
anor277
Jul 9, 2017

For the simple reason that they are present in solution as discrete ions.....#Na^+#, #K^+#, #Cl^-#...........

Explanation:

And as discrete charged particles, even if they are solvated by several water molecules, they can carry a current, and hence the solution is electrolytic. Of course, you go to a supermarket and you can buy any number of such sports drinks.

Years ago I had a colleague who was a running fool, and he used to take #2xx1*L# bottles habitually on a run (of course he got unused poly bottles from Chem Stores, for all your camping and hardware needs!), and to each bottle he would add a teaspoon of salt, and a dessert spoon of sugar and then fill it with water........he said that if it didn't taste as good as the commercial brands then he hadn't been running hard enuff.....

Related questions
See all questions in Properties of ionic, covalent, and metallic compounds
Impact of this question
4010 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License