Oh, gosh, I don't know what chemical bonds are.Depends on the chemical bonds: if they're smaller than normal H2O bonds then it'll be less volume
Is that the kind of stuff you learn in high school? Because my ME made me miss 90% of that, so I only understand very, very simple science, like 'things always fall down, not up'. :lol: But thank you for your reply! I'll go see if I can find a simple explanation of chemical bonds. That's very, very accurate, yes. :lol:
Ooh, thank you! I can't say I completely understand what you quoted (or, well, at all, reallythis piqued my interest
i found these (specifically relating to dissolving salt in water, but i guess there is either some salt in the powder or other substances that are behaving in the same fashion)
the solvent molecules (the water) 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.
and
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.
:lol, but it sounds like it's actually possible for my syringe feed to shrink? It's not me being weird? That's good to know! 
