How to Dissolve Sugar in a Water Science Experiment
Observing how principles work in chemistry and physics helps us understand the world around us. Performing some simple experiments with water and sugar can show us different ways that sugar breaks down, and how light refracts differently in sugar solutions with various percentages. It is important to make sure that you perform the experiments correctly to see the expected results.
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Things You'll Need
- Beakers
- Graduated cylinders
- Balance
- Safety goggles
- Apron
- Bunsen burner
- Stirring rod
Instructions
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Prepare your materials. Clean and dry beakers, graduated cylinders and any other measuring devices thoroughly. Calibrate your balance so when the empty container for your sugar is on it, it reads zero and accurately measures the mass of only the sugar. Put on safety goggles and an apron. Turn on your Bunsen burner.
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Pour water and measure the volume with your graduated cylinder. Mass the amount of sugar you need in the container on your balance. For example, to create an 80 percent sugar solution, you need 80g sugar for every 100mL water, since 1mL=1g water.
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Dissolve the sugar into the water with a stirring rod. If the experiment calls for you to heat the water over the Bunsen burner first, do that and then pour the sugar in as you stir. You may need to saturate a solution, which can happen at any temperature with different amounts of sugar, or even create a supersaturated solution which breaks down as it cools.
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Perform your measurements and calculations for a light experiment or your sensory descriptions for a chemical change. Some experiments include measuring light refraction between different percentages of sugar and water solution, observing crystalline changes and formations in candy or tasting the differences between sucrose and when it breaks down in water into glucose and fructose.
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Tips & Warnings
For help with conversions, try the online calculators on Convert Units.
