Let us say we have one glass of water and after that when we add one or two spoon of salt then we notice that salt dissolves in it but when we measure the water level we found that there is no difference between initial reading and final reading. So what's happening over there ? Why water level doesn't changed when salt is added ?
Answer
This is an example of electrostriction - see, for example, this paper for a full explanation.
In short, the solvent molecules become more ordered in the vicinity of dissolved (charged) ions and less ordered as we go further away from the dissolved (charged) ions. The increase of solvent density near the ions is offset by the decrease of bulk density in the solvent as distance from the ions increases. This results in an overall net reduction in the observed volume of the solution.
From the Discussion section of the manuscript:
The interaction of the electrostatic field of an ion with water tends to align the dipolar water molecules in the direction of the field. In this way the field tends to disrupt hydrogen bonded structures in liquid water, and to compress the water molecules surrounding an ion. These electrostatic effect give rise to a shrinkage of the water.
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