Chemistry Mini Project

Did you know making rock candy is chemistry related? Who knew chemistry could taste so good.
To begin this chemistry experiment, you will first need to have these materials:

• Three cups of sugar (sucrose)
  
• One cup of water
  
• A clean glass or jar
  
• A cotton string
  
• A pencil or a popsicle stick
  
• Food coloring (optional)
  
• A lifesaver candy


• And 1/2tsp to 1tsp flavoring oil or extract (optional, for the flavor)
  
• A pan
  
• A hotplate
  

Okay now that you have all the materials required to make the rock candy, you can begin!!!

1. Pour the sugar and water into the pan


2. Boil the mixture and mix it constantly. Make sure the mixture does not go beyond boiling or the mixture will get to hard.


3. Stir the sugar until it is totally dissolved.


4. Add the food coloring and the flavoring into the solution. This step is optional.


5. Put the solution into the refrigerator to cool down. The mixture should be 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
   
6. Now take your cotton string and tie it to your popsicle stick or pencil. The string should hang in the jar and not touch the bottom of the jar.


7. Tie the lifesaver to the bottom of the string to weigh down the string.
   
8. After your solution is cooled down pour it into the clean glass or jar.


9. Take the string and wet it with water and dip it into sugar. Make sure your string is sugar coated. After doing this, place the string into the solution, with the lifesaver on the bottom and the popsicle stick on top of the glass so it is not in the solution.
   
10. Set your glass aside for 3-7 days. After 3-7 days there should be crystals growing on the string.

Chemistry Related
Rock candy is basically sugar crystals. If you look at sugar closely , you will see that the crystals have a rectangular shape. Crystals are solids that form by a regular pattern of molecules connecting together. Crystals grow really slowly because they add single layers of molecules. It takes millions of small atoms called cells to make a crystal. Cells repeat themselves in all directions making geometric shapes that have flat surfaces called crystal faces. Sugar is a cubic crystal.