How does crushing the candy to smaller pieces affect its dissolution?

* Increased surface area: When you crush a candy, you create many more tiny pieces, each with its own surface area exposed to the dissolving medium (usually water). This dramatically increases the total surface area available for the dissolving process.

* Faster interaction: The smaller the pieces, the more readily they interact with the solvent molecules. This allows the solvent to access the candy's molecules more quickly and break them apart, leading to faster dissolution.

Think of it this way:

* A large rock takes a long time to dissolve in water because only a small surface area is exposed to the water.

* Crushing the rock into gravel increases the surface area, allowing the water to interact with more of the rock at once and dissolve it faster.

* Turning the gravel into sand further increases the surface area, making the dissolution even faster.

The same principle applies to candy. The smaller the pieces, the faster they dissolve in your mouth, releasing their flavor more quickly. This is why we often crush hard candies before sucking on them, or why powdered sugar dissolves much faster than sugar cubes.