Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to see how salol crystals will form when they are melted and the only way to make them solid again.
Introduction: Is there a preferred crystal shape for solid salol? Rhombus
Is cooling liquid salol a 100% effective way to cause solidification? No, it is not.
Procedure:
1) Obtain a slide of solid salol, two magnifying glasses, and a match book. 2) Use a magnifying glass to look at the crystal and describe what you see. 3) Scratch off some of the crystal from the smaller side and save it on your desk. 4) Light a match and heat the bigger crystal side and time how many seconds it takes for the crystal to reach its melting point. 5) Let the melted crystal cool to room temperature and see if it has solidified. 6) Add a small piece of the crystal you previously scratch off onto the desk, and put it into the cooled crystal. 7) After you watch the crystal solidify again, heat the crystal up again. 8) This time, add a piece of lead, paper, or a piece of the match, and see if the solution solidifies.
Observation: The crystal is flaky, shiny, and white. It is lumpy in some parts and flat in others. The crystals are in a shape of a rhombus. It took about 7 seconds for the crystal to melt. After adding the lead to the crystal, the lead did nothing. It did not re-solidify the crystal.
Conclusions: After melting the crystal, the crystal does not solidify at room temperature. It does, however, re-solidify when solid crystal is added to it. We can conclude that this crystal remains melted at room temperature and does not re-solidify. I think that the room temperature keeps the crystal at a liquid point because it is too warm to solidify the crystal.