Solutes, Solvents and Dissolving: When a sugar cube "dissolves" in a glass of water, the sugar cube isn’t really disappearing or evaporating, or going away; the water only breaking apart the molecules in the sugar, so that instead of all the C6H12O6 (sodium chloride/table salt) molecules clustered at the base of the container in the shape of a square, all of the molecules are spread out more thinly throughout the whole area. A solute in the above case would be the sugar, because it dissolves into the solvent, which is the water. Dissolving means that the grouped atoms/molecules break apart one by one and are carried away by the vibrating solvent's atoms/molecules. When a solvent, i.e. water, cannot dissolve a substance, i.e. pepper, then that type of matter (pepper) is insoluble by water. To determine whether or not a solute is in a solution, use your five senses (touch, hear, sight, taste and smell), or look at it under a microscope that allows you to view the atoms/molecules. Below is a tree diagram of the differences between mixtures and pure substances. For more information on the pure substances, click here. A liquid dissolves a solute slower when cold than if it is warm, but a concentrated, solution has more of the dissolved solute than one that is more dilute. When a solution has dissolved all off the solute than it can handle, then it becomes saturated, and any more solute added will not be dissolved. To speed up the dissolving process, you can heat up the liquid, but if you place it in a cooler area, you are slowing the dissolving process.