A heap of white salt at the bottom of a beaker of water that gradually disappears to leave a completely clear solution
Salt solutions

A further point about particles can be illustrated by looking at what happens when salt is added to water. To begin with, the salt is visible as a heap at the bottom. But then:

  • The salt, in effect, disappears

Of course, it hasn't disappeared, it has dissolved to create a solution, with salt as the solute and water as the solvent. We can test this by tasting the water. It will taste salty.

The key point here is that the salt particles spreading through the water are invisible to us. In other words:

  • The particles are very, very small