What is the difference between saturated, unsaturated,and supersaturated solutions?
Saturation is when something has dissolved in a solution and no more of it will dissolve under normal circumstances (room temperature, normal pressure). It has reached equilibrium. Unsaturated is just points before this equilibrium is reached, so you can keep dissolving the substance into the solution. Supersaturated is when you change the conditions so that you can dissolve more of the substance into the solution than it would allow under normal conditions. If the solution is brought back under normal conditions, it will spit back out the substance. (Cocacola is an example of a super saturated solution of CO2, when a bottle is opened it will attempt to reach equilibrium again by bubbling and fizzing.
