I have another question. How would someone check the hardness of sugar? That was one of the objectives in the lab. Would you say that sugar is hard?
How hard is hard. How soft is hard. Hard is a relative term. Sugar crystals are relatively easy to cut.
drwls had said that sugar is molecular and I have this chart where it says that moleuclar substances are usually soft. So would you say that sugar is soft? My teacher said that hardness is more like if you can bend the substance and I find that a bit confusing.
You would have to test a single crystal of sugar, not something like a sugar cube, which is not very hard and crumbles easily. A Brinell hardness test can and has been applied to sugar. It involves measuring the depth of an impression made by a spherical steel ball.
DrBob is the resident chemistry authority here. I did not realize he was still online
We were told to attempt to bend the substance which made absolutely no sense it me. So would you say that without the Brinell hardness test you can't exactly figure out the hardness of sugar?
I presume that by trying to bend the substance means that if it breaks while trying to bend it then you say it isn't hard. But that's a guess on my part. Perhaps DrWLS has some date on the Brinell test. I don't have that information. My experience with sugar, however, is that a single crystal of sugar is relatively soft; i.e., I can cut a piece of sugar with my finger nail.
drwls said that sugar is atomic however aren`t atomic substances supposed to be insoluable?
