This picture was taken after 3 days of letting the solution sit out to form sugar crystals...
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Rock Candy
When we were at the National Scouting Museum a couple weeks ago, Ethan bought a kitchen science kit. One of the projects was making rock candy, and of course - that was the first one he wanted to do! So we boiled the water and sugar, added coloring and flavoring, and dropped the string with a paperclip attached to the end into the solution. And we have waited, and waited, and waited. It has been almost a week now, and although the solution is crystalizing, the sugar crystals are not just clinging to the string and clip, but rather forming a crust of crystals across the top of the solution and sticking to the sides of the glass. Is this normal?
If you have ever made rock candy this way before, I'd love to hear your insight. I'm going to have quite a time getting these glasses clean...
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2 comments:
Wow...I wrote this huge comment and then got distracted and didn't sign in and didn't recognize the page when I got back and so then ERASED my comment. Sigh.
Basically I said that when we did this experiment, it did exactly what yours is doing. But if you wait long enough, eventually some will grow on the string. It took much longer than I thought it would. I'd like to try with a wooden skewer to see if that works any better.
My kids were understandably tired of waiting, so last night we chipped off what we could from in the glass for them and they ate the things that were stuck to the string, then they put the string back in the remaining liquid to see if they could get some more crystals. They enjoyed it, and even though I wish it had a better result, if they're happy, why should I complain?
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