Rock Candy Lab

Rock Candy Lab

Create a question: I wanted to find out what would happen after 24 hours of the string sitting in the water and sugar mixture.

Hypothesis: I think that after 24 hours the water and sugar mixture would harden onto the string and make it like crystals. Also I think that there will still be some of the mixture left in the beaker.

Materials:
1. 1 cup of water
2. 3 cups of white or brown sugar
3. Food coloring (optional)
4. Flavoring (optional)
5.Pencil
6. String
7. Beaker
8. Stove burner of Bunsen burner
9. Pot
10. Scissors
11. Oven mit
Procedure:
1. Start a pot of boiling water on the stove or Bunsen burner.
2. Twist a piece of cotton string around the middle of the pencil. The string should be long enough that when placed in the beaker the string will just hang short of the bottom.
3. Wet the string with a little water and roll it in the sugar.
4. Lay the pencil over the top of the beaker so that the string hangs down inside the jar, but doesn't quite touch the bottom of the beaker.
5. When the water has started boiling, remove for the burner and let the water settle.
6. Mix in the sugar one half a cup at a time. Continue adding sugar until it starts collecting at the bottom of the pot and will not dissolve even when you stir it around.
7. Add food coloring and flavoring if you want it.
8. Pour the sugar syrup solution into the beaker until it is about 1 inch from the top.
9. Place the pencil over the jar and allow the string to dangle into the solution.
10. Place the glass somewhere where it can sit for a while without it being disturbed (do not put it into a fridge or freezer.)
11. Leave the string in the solution until the crystals are big enough for your liking or until they have completely stopped growing.
12. Remove the string from the glass and let dry.
13. After it dries, wait until the crystal is formed or ready.

14. Collect data by taking pictures.

Safety Issues: Make sure that you don't get burned by the burner or the boiling water. Take the pot off the burner by using a glove or oven mit.

Experiment and Data: After 24 hours of the string being in the mixture of water and sugar the sugar hardened onto the string to form crystals. There was still mixture in the beaker but most of it was on the string and hardened because of the sugar. My results did support my hypothesis because after 24 hours the sugary mixture did harden onto the string and there was still a good amount of mixture left in the beaker.

Analysis/Conclusion: During my experiment I learned that the more sugar you put in the water the more crystals you have on the string because there is more that can harden onto the string. My results did support my hypothesis because what I predicted to happen did happen. After it harden my group did decide to see what it would taste like. It did not taste good at all because it just tasted like you were pure sugar. (Which was basically what it was.)

This was the crystal when I was about to eat it.