What happens when you mix salt with water?

Mixing salt with water results in the salt dissolving in the water to produce a saline solution. The salt splits up into positively and negatively charged ions that exist independently in the solution.

The chemical name of table salt is sodium chloride. It is an ionic solid made of positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged chloride ions, which form a strong crystalline structure due to the electrical charges between them. When salt is mixed with water, the charged ions instead form weak hydrogen bonds with water molecules. Boiling away the water returns the salt to its original crystalline state.