Is Magnesium hydroxide(produced from reacting water with magnesium oxide) a precipitate or a suspension?Thank youPictures would be nice :D
Put simply, a precipitate sinks to the bottom and a suspension floats about suspended in the liquid. Precipitation means falling - like rain Suspension means floating about Some precipitates look like suspensions because the make the liquid cloudy and only sink to the bottom gradually. There are also flocculates which are suspensions where the material is clumped together, often looking like blobs of oil or feathery jelly-like crystals. Sometimes these also sink to the bottom after a while. I would regard Magnesium Hydroxide as a precipitate
Mg(OH)2, i.e. Milk of Magnesia, exists as a milky-white suspension. The main point of difference between a suspension and a precipitate is in how the first phase is interspersed in the other. in a precipitate, you have a solid which is inside a liquid phase; often, it pellets out and and separates from the liquid (may float up or sink depending on densities). On the other hand, a suspension is a more general term; a suspension can be made of solid-in-liquid or liquid-in-liquid solutions. However, the particles in a suspension are floating evenly throughout the solution. For example, when you disturb the mud at the bottom of a creek or river, the particles fly up and cause the water to be cloudy for a short time until they settle back down. This is an example of a suspension. In much the same way, if you allow the contents of many suspensions to settle, the phases will separate and you will be left with a precipitate. Magnesium hydroxide dissolved in water forms a suspension.
