Does sugar expand or contract when heated?

Answer 1

no it don't unless u put more sugar in it

Correct answer: Most things expand when heated and contract when cooled. Exceptions are things like ice. Ice actually expands and is less dense than water, because of the way the ice crystals form. However, when you get below -4 degrees Celsius, it also will increase density the colder it gets.

The key to this is that cold is only a concept used to describe a relative loss of heat. Cold is a concept and cannot be measured. Only heat can be measured, because only heat is energy. EVERYTHING has a certain amount of heat energy, even ice. The more heat energy that a material has, the more excited the atoms get. They start to vibrate and push the surrounding atoms away from themselves. As the vibrations get more and more intense, the material expands. When the expansion gets intense enough, the solid state matter will become a liquid state matter. Increase it even more, it will turn to a gas state.

So short version - it expands. In fact, if you heat it up enough, it will turn into a liquid. Cooks use this to "carmelize" food. Sprinkle sugar on a food (like a dessert or a ham), heat gently, sugar melts and when it cools, it becomes a nice sweet glaze on the food.