Melting vs. Dissolving: What's the Difference?
Read the comparison below, or explore it visually. Create a visual lesson comparing melting and dissolving using available credits or plan allowance.
Melting is a single substance changing from solid to liquid when heated to its melting point, while dissolving is one substance spreading out evenly between the particles of another to form a solution. Ice melts into water on its own when warmed, but sugar in tea dissolves because water molecules pull its particles apart; the sugar never becomes liquid sugar.
At a glance
| Melting | Dissolving | |
|---|---|---|
| Substances involved | One substance | At least two: a solute and a solvent |
| What causes it | Heat energy reaching the melting point | Attraction between solute and solvent particles |
| Temperature needed | A fixed melting point, e.g. 0 °C for ice | No fixed point; happens over a range of temperatures |
| Result | The liquid form of the same substance | A solution, such as salt water |
| Reversing it | Cool the liquid until it freezes | Evaporate the solvent to recover the solute |
Which should you use?
Melting is the right term when heat alone turns a solid into its liquid form, such as butter softening into ghee in a hot pan or ice cubes turning to water in a glass.
Dissolving is the right term when a solid disappears into a liquid to form a solution, such as salt stirred into water for cooking or sugar mixed into a glass of nimbu pani.