Sugar Surface Area

Sugar – Surface Area

1. Put your heading on this paper and call it sugar surface area. READ THE ENTIRE LAB WITH YOUR PARTNER OUT LOUD BEFORE YOU BEGIN!

2. Before you begin performing the lab, please RAP the following on your looseleaf… A. Independent Variable B. Dependent Variable C. Constants D. Control E. Write a hypothesis using the following formula If the ______(IV)______is increased/decreased, then the ______(DV)______will increase/decrease.

3. Assign different members of your group to gather different parts of this list. Gather your materials and bring them to your lab table. One sugar cube One small cup with loose sugar in it. Two beakers Two stirring rods One timer One empty cup One spoon One triple beam balance (put your hands under the bottom to carry this to your table.)

4. Using the triple beam balances that are on the counters, mass the sugar cube. Record its mass below. (Be sure to label!)

______

Count the number of sides of the sugar cube.

Record that number here.______

How many sides will be touching the water when you place the cube into the water? Please restate and answer.

______

______5. Using the triple beam balance, an empty cup, and a spoon measure out the exact same amount of loose sugar. (If your sugar cube massed at 4.6 grams, measure out that EXACT amount of loose sugar – remember to disregard the mass of the cup) Will more or less sides of the loose sugar be touching the water when you place it into the water? (Comparing it to the sugar cube.) Please restate and answer.

______

______6. Fill your two beakers with 100 mL of water each.

7. Pour the loose sugar into one of the beakers of water, stirring with the STIRRING ROD (NOT the spoon) constantly in a clockwise motion. Time how long it takes for the sugar to dissolve. (Start your timer when the sugar touches the water. Stop your timer when the sugar is no longer visible – which means when you cannot see any sugar grains any more.) 8. Record that time in the data table below.

Type of Sugar Number of Sides Time

millions

9. Place the sugar cube into the other beaker of water, stirring with the other stirring rod constantly in a clockwise motion. Try to make sure that you are stirring at about the same speed as you did for the loose sugar. Time how long it takes for the sugar to dissolve. (Start your timer when the sugar touches the water. Stop your timer when the sugar is no longer visible – which means when you cannot see any sugar grains any more.)

10. Record that time in the data table where you recorded your results for the loose sugar. 11. Please restate, answer, and prove for the following questions on a sheet of loose leaf and staple the loose leaf to the front of this page.

F. Which had more parts touching the water, the sugar cube or the loose sugar? (the more parts touching the water, the larger the surface area.) G. Which dissolved faster? (the faster it dissolved, the faster it weathered.)

H. What does this experiment show you about surface area and rate of weathering? I. What does this experiment show you about the weathering of rocks? (Which rocks will weather more quickly, big rocks or little rocks?)