You are told that the salts of an organic acid or base has much different solubility properties than the parent acid or base. what are the differences and why is this?

Explanation:

Because the salt is a charged, ionic compound, whereas the parent is purely covalently bounded, therefore, the salt of an organic acid or base is much more water soluble than the parent acid or base.

This is important because water molecules can "dissolve" a charged molecule, which means that it can be surrounded and stabilized by water molecules.

In contrast, water molecules are not drawn to parent acid or base nonpolar substituents, and the molecule's total polarity is determined by the relative electronegativity of the polar group and molecule surface area.

In other words, a long chained molecule in water are usually insoluble whereas a short chain  is likely to be soluble.

we can conclude that the melting point of table salt is above room temperature (it's actually 801 deg c). the melting point of mercury must be below room temperature (- 39 deg c).