Sucrose is a granular cubic crystal. The molecules in sucrose crystals are arranged very neatly, and each molecule has a fixed position, just like a neatly parked car in a parking lot. However, once sucrose enters the cotton candy making machine, its molecular structure will change, and sucrose will become a very long filamentous substance, which will be intertwined like cotton.

The cotton candy making machine is a machine like a big bowl. The center of the machine is a high-temperature heating chamber. Heat breaks the crystal structure and turns sugar into syrup. There are some holes smaller than granular sucrose in the heating chamber. When sugar rotates at high speed in the heating chamber, centrifugal force sprays syrup from small holes to the periphery of the "big bowl". Because the speed at which a liquid material solidifies under cold conditions is related to its volume, the smaller the volume, the faster it solidifies. Therefore, the researchers designed the small holes in the heating cavity to be only 50 microns in diameter, and the syrup sprayed from the small holes immediately condensed into solid sugar filaments without sticking together.

The rapid cooling makes the sucrose molecules can't be arranged neatly, so the huge fluffy marshmallows in children's hands are no longer crystals, but are composed of countless linear and glassy sugars. In a slightly professional way, the crystal structure of sucrose has been destroyed by cotton candy makers, and the arrangement of sucrose molecules is no longer regular, but chaotic. This structural change can be measured by melting point. Sucrose molecules have a specific melting point, and the temperature will not change when they are melted by heat. However, the cotton candy silk has no specific melting point, and the temperature will gradually increase when it melts.