For science class, we did a lab experiment to see if a gum’s mass go’s up or down when it’s chewed. This is an excellent lab activity for middle schoolers. I think my partner and I did a good job with this experiment. Enjoy!
Question: Does the mass of a piece of chewing change after being chewed?
Background information: Basic ingredients of chewing gum are: gum base, softners, sweeteners and flavorings. The ingredient that makes the gum ‘chewable’ is gum base. Sweeteners and flavorings provide the majority of gum’s mass. Sweeteners mostly contain sugar,corn syrup, xylitol or sorbitol. Most gums containing sugar lose 60–75% of their mass after being chewed for 10 minutes. While chewing the gum, saliva from the mouth helps dissolving the ‘sugar’ (sweeteners) up to 70%, which results in decreasing the mass of the gum.
Hypothesis: If the gum is chewed, then the mass of the gum will decrease.
Materials:
- One piece of chewing gum
- Triple Beam Balance
- A graph (digitally or on paper) to record your different masses
- Stopwatch or timer with second hand
- Pencil
- One ‘’ chewer’’ to chew the gum
- Helping person to start and stop the clock and to keep track of data
Procedure:
- Get all materials ready for experiment and wash your hands
2. Measure the mass of the gum on the triple beam balance with wrapper on before chewing it
3. Unwrap gum and chew the gum with timer started for one minute
4. Take gum out of the mouth and measure the mass of the gum on balance again on the wrapper
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4, nine more times until you are finished and record each measurement on graphing chart
6. Be sure you have finished everything and throw away the gum
7. Put away all materials
Data :
Analysis/Conclusion: Our hypothesis was correct since the mass decreased after Cian chewed it multiple times. Our hypothesis was supported because Double Bubble, the brand we used claiming to be sugar free, had the lowest rate of decomposition. Double Bubble brand gum I looked up had a high starting amount of sugar and therefore lost the greatest amount of mass. During the first 4 “chewing trials”, the gum lost the most combined amount of mass. The largest amount of mass loss was displayed during the first “chewing trial” when it went from 6.35 grams to 5.03 grams. On the last “ chewing trial”, the mass decreased the least when it went from 2.21 grams to just 2.15 grams. I believe that since saliva combined with chewing is meant to break food down, that is the reason why the mass decreased. At first, the mass of the gum decreased the most because as soon as you chew a whole piece of gum , it immediately smashed the gum. Later on, every time Cian put the gum in his mouth, there was nothing really to decompose since it was already smashed with saliva. The first example of scientific error was that I possibly put the timer on , a second or two late after Cian put the gum in his mouth. We should have counted down “3,2,1” so that I would’ve put started the timer on the right second. Also, we slightly rushed on the last two “chewing trials” since class was almost over. Also, we forgot to put the wrapper on the gum while measuring on the fifth “chewing trial. We should’ve made sure we got everything right before cleaning up.
