Place the cooking pot on the scale and write down its weight. For example, the pot might weigh 16 ounces.

Pour a can or bottle of soda into a measuring cup. Record the volume of the liquid. (Most cans of soda have 12 ounces of soda in them.) Pour the soda from the measuring cup into the cooking pot.

Place the pot on the heat source and bring to boil. Watch carefully while the soda boils away.

A can of soda might take 10 to 15 minutes to boil away. Stir the boiling soda frequently with a spoon. Use a pot holder when touching the pot.

When there is a thick, sticky liquid substance left in the pot, turn off the heat and remove pot from stove. That thick liquid is sugar.

Wait a moment for the pot to cool off a little. Still using a pot holder, place the pot on the scale and record the weight. For example, the pot with sugar might weigh 51 ounces.

Subtract the weight of the pot from the weight of the pot plus sugar: 51-16 = 35 There are 35 ounces of sugar in a 12-ounce can of soda.

More Ideas

Place a glass jar on the scale. If the jar weighs 7 ounces, add 7 to the amount of sugar in the can of soda:

7 + 35 = 42.

Spoon sugar one teaspoon at a time into the glass jar until the scale reads 42 ounces. Take a good look at how much sugar is in the glass jar.

Pour the same amount of water into the measuring cup as there was soda earlier. (For a can of soda, it was probably the 12 ounce mark.) Pour from the measuring cup into the glass jar to see how much sugar there is in a can of soda.

Things You'll Need

• Stove, hot plate, or burner
• Cooking pot
• Wooden or metal spoon
• Can of soda
• Sugar
• Scale
• Glass jar
• Measuring cup
• Teaspoon
• Water
• Paper and pencil
• Pot holder

Warnings

• An adult must supervise the use of a stove or hot plate. An adult must use a pot holder to remove the hot pot from the heat source.