Properties
Magnesium sulfate is highly soluble in water. The anhydrous form is strongly hygroscopic, and can be used as a desiccant.
Epsom salts have medicinal properties when used both externally and internally.
Magnesium sulfate is the primary substance that causes the absorption of sound in seawater (acoustic energy is converted to thermal energy). Absorption is strongly dependent on frequency: lower frequencies are less absorbed by the salt, so that the sound travels much farther in the ocean. Boric acid also contributes to absorption, but the most abundant salt in seawater, sodium chloride, has negligible sound absorption.
Read more about this topic: Magnesium Sulfate
Famous quotes containing the word properties:
“The reason why men enter into society, is the preservation of their property; and the end why they choose and authorize a legislative, is, that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the members of the society: to limit the power, and moderate the dominion, of every part and member of the society.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“A drop of water has the properties of the sea, but cannot exhibit a storm. There is beauty of a concert, as well as of a flute; strength of a host, as well as of a hero.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)