CRYSTAL CLEAR
Grow your own crystals along a piece of string
RN: 10111102 - CHEMISTRY > CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
SUITABLE GRADES
3 & 4
DIFFICULTY
2
TIME REQUIRED
<1 Week
SUPERVISION
REQUIRED
INTRODUCTION [METHOD]
When sugar is mixed into some hot coffee, it disappears and the coffee tastes sweet. This is called 'dissolving'. After a certain amount of sugar is added, no more sugar can be dissolved and the sugar is left sitting at the bottom of the cup. When no more sugar can be dissolved in the solution, the sugar and water solution is 'saturated'. Crystallization takes place when such a saturated solution 'evaporates', leaving only the crystals behind as can be seen in the following science experiment:
STUFF YOU NEED [MATERIALS]
- GLASS JAR
- PENCIL
- WOOLLEN THREAD
- PAPER CLIP
- TAP WATER
- SUGAR
- METAL PAN & SPOON
HOW TO PROCEED [PROCEDURE]
- Cut a piece of string to a length of about 200mm and tie a paper clip to the one end of the string.
- Tie the other end of the string to a pencil so that the paper clip hangs just below the bottom of the jar when the pencil is placed over the mouth of the glass jar.
- Pour some water into a metal pan and as your parents or an adult to help you heat up the water on a stove.
- With an adult's help, add half a cup of sugar at a time to the hot water and stir the mixture constantly to help the sugar to dissolve in the water. Keep on adding half cups of sugar to the water until it is clear that no more sugar will dissolve.
- Now that your 'super-saturated' water / sugar mixture is complete, have an adult help you to pour the hot mixture into the glass jar, with the pencil and string over the opening of the jar.
- Let the glass jar with the hot mixture cool down, and then place it in an area that will receive a lot of sunlight, but be undisturbed, such as a sunlit window sill.
- After about a week or two you will see that the water evaporated leaving a string of crystals behind!
WHY IT WORKS [CONCLUSION]
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GLOSSARY [TERMS]
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