Describe what happens to a sugar solution upon heating?
Answer:
It gets hot.
it caramalises... mmm toffee sauce
1. As water evaporates, the solution will become more concentrated -- the percentage of sugar rises as the percentage of water falls.
2. The molecules move around more quickly.
The water evaporates and it turns into Carbon.
It's temperature rises. All the little molecules that go "bump" start bumping harder and faster. Pretty soon, those water molecules begin popping off the surface of the solution and not coming back, faster and faster. If you keep it up, no more water is left. You'll see the sugar coming out of solution a little before this, and if you continue heating, even the sugar starts breaking down: turn yellow, then brown. It becomes caramel (and, believe it or not, Coca-Cola -- or was it Pepsi? -- has a patent on some of the molecules identified as constituents of caramel). The caramel (a complex mess of molecules, I cannot describe) breaks down further, leaving a charred mass. If you continue heating even this (but it will take a long, long long long time), even the charred mass (mainly carbon) will react with the oxygen in the air -- burn, essentially, but no flame -- and you'll be left with nothing. because the carbon dioxide will just waft away.
Personally, I'd quit once I got the caramel.
All of the answers so far are correct. As it gets warmer, the molecules move faster. As the water evaporates the concentration increases. As it gets to the molecular breakdown point, it caramelizes.
In cooking terms it attains the soft ball stage, then the hard ball stage and then the crack stage , referring to what happens if you put a sample in cold water, and candy making. Next is the caramelizing stage.
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