How to Make Sugar & Salt Crystals
A crystal is a solid arrangement of atoms or molecules in a specific pattern. There are a variety of ways to make crystals, but one of easiest is to use a heated saturated solution. The solution is allowed to cool slowly, which causes the solute to precipitate out of the solution as solid crystals. You can perform this procedure with both sugar and salt by using household items.
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Things You'll Need
- Water
- Pan
- Salt
- Cardboard
- Pot
- Granulated sugar
- Jar
- Paper clip
- Cotton string
- Pencil
Instructions
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1
Fill a pan with water and bring it to a full boil. Dissolve as much salt as possible in the boiling water. The solution is saturated when crystals start forming on the pan's bottom.
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2
Soak a piece of cardboard in the salt water and allow it to sink to the bottom of the pan. Place the pan in full sunlight and wait for several days. The cardboard forms a template on which the crystals to grow, and the sun prevents the solution from cooling quickly.
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3
Boil approximately 400 ml water in a pot and gradually stir in approximately 200 ml of granulated sugar. Pour the boiling sugar solution into the jar so that the jar is nearly full of the sugar solution.
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4
Tie a paper clip on one end of the string and a pencil to the other end. Place the pencil across the opening of the jar and drop the paper clip into the sugar solution. You should see sugar crystals form on the string over the next few days.
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5
Experiment with conditions to grow larger crystals. Ideally, the solution should cool from boiling to room temperature as slowly as possible. The other environment conditions should remain stable throughout the experiment.
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