Table sugar is commonly used to sweeten food. There are different kinds of sugars, including glucose, fructose, and sucrose. Glucose is commonly called blood sugar; fructose is sugar in fruit; sucrose is table sugar.
Sucrose is a carbohydrate, which is a chemical made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
Sucrose molecules contain 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of hydrogen, and 11 atoms of oxygen (C12H22O11).
Sucrose is produced by plants in a process called photosynthesis. Some plants, such as sugar beets and sugarcane, produce so much sucrose that they are sugar crops (plants grown to extract sugar that is sold).
Activity:
Crystals are orderly arrangements of particles that make up a substance. For sucrose, the building blocks are molecules. As these molecules stack together, the structure formed is cubic in shape.
Use a magnifying lens to study dry table sugar. Spread the sugar crystals and look for small cubes. This is the shape of crystals of sucrose.