How to Make a Home Experiment of Rock Candy
As a popular project completed in elementary schools, making rock candy shows how crystals form in ideal environments. Knowing how to conduct a rock candy experiment allows you to not only educate your children or students but it also provides you and them with homemade sweetened treats. Making the rock candy is simple, although a lengthy endeavor, but it isn't difficult to complete even if you're not a teacher.
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Things You'll Need
- 12 oz. jar with lid
- Sharp knife
- Skewer
- Kite string
- Scissors
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
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1
Fill the jar with tap water. Add a cup of sugar to the jar and stir it thoroughly with the wooden skewer.
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2
Secure the lid and poke a single hole into the center of it with a sharp knife or other object.
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3
Tie a length of clean kite string around the center of the wooden skewer. Leave at least 5 inches of string dangling from the skewer.
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4
Feed the loose kite string through the hole in the top of the lid. Remove the lid and pull it through the other side if necessary. Rest the skewer on top of the lid, as it is keeps the string stable and weighted, so it doesn't fall into the bottom of the jar.
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5
Allow the jar to sit in a windowsill or similar location for 7 to 10 days. Monitor the formation of the rock crystals as the water evaporates on its own from the jar. As the water evaporates naturally, the dense sugar crystals adhere to the string creating chunky rocks of candy.
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Tips & Warnings
Add your choice of food coloring to the jar of water prior to introducing the string. This creates colored chunks of rock candy.
