“Wow, Lindsey’s blog was super helpful! It can be found here http://chemistry2013-14.tumblr.com/post/75624209704/relating-it-back-to-chemistry-cotton-candy
I loved reading and learning about my favorite carnival treat. It seems like cotton candy is a relatively easy process, but also complex in its own way. The reason cotton candy works though is because of one thing: chemistry.
The main (and only) ingredient in cotton candy is sugar. One type of sugar is sucrose and it is a carbohydrate. Sucrose is made up primarily of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms (C12H22O11). A Lindsey pointed out, we learned how different typed of atoms can make up an element.
This sugar is then heated in a cotton candy machine. Once it is heated, the sugar comes to its melting point and the bonds of the constituent molecules break. Then the oxygen and hydrogen within the sugar rearranges to become water, and then evaporate. This leaves behind only the carbon, which begins to burn. After that, the sugar caramelizes.
The hot cotton candy maker continues spinning the hot liquid, and then once it is time to put on the stick, all the microscopically thin strands of liquid sugar cool in the air and become the cloud of sweet puff we enjoy! It’s that simple. But it would not be possible without chemistry!
I used this article to help with my further research on the topic http://theraptorlab.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/the-science-of-cotton-candy/”
Well Megan talked about Lindsey’s post so I wanted to add onto Megans response! This post follows cotton candy and how it is made. ALthough it does describe how to make cotton candy, i remembered hearing that it was dyed and became curious onto how this was done. The answer was simple enough: food coloring! One website I found showed how to make your own colored sugar which I believe is what is used to create cotton candy.
The link is here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-Custom-Sugar-Colors/
But it still didnt show me what food coloring is made of. For that I looked on the fda website. It provided information such as that the color can sometimes be used to preserve freshness but is mainly used for our own enjoyment because it improves appearance. I mean bright pink and blue candy is definitly more appealing to little kids than a plain white one.
Here: http://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm094211.htm
Overall it was interesting reading the two posts as I would not have thought about the chemistry behind cotton candy without them.
Connecting with Chem 