December 17, 2012
Ally Harper and Jenna Barry
Period 1
Title: Mass Lost in a
Piece of Gum When
Chewed
Purpose:
The purpose of this experiment is to record the amount of mass that is
dissolved when gum is chewed and to determine which brand of gum loses the
most mass.
Background Information on Gum:
Every piece of gum contains an ingredient called gum base. Individuals know
most ingredients in gum, but they don’t know the exact ratios of the gum base
(wax, to plastic, to rubber) The gum base is the essential ingredient in a piece of
gum because of the elements it contains. These ingredients all have different
purposes within the gum. The purpose of wax allows the non-chewed gum to keep
its shape. Plastic makes the gum easier to chew. Rubber allows the gum to stretch.
The only way a person could get an idea of what the ratios are, is by chewing the
gum. This isn’t the most accurate way to discover the ratios because every person
has a different opinion. However, this is the only way you can, unless you work for
the manufacturing company that makes the gums. Hubba Bubba, Bubbalicious,
Trident, Extra, Orbit, Bazooka, Bubble Yum and Double Bubble are all the gums in
this experiment. Most of these gums feel waxy except for Extra. All of these contain
natural or alcohol sugars or both. Sugar alcohols dissolve faster than the natural
sugars because they are smaller. Along with the sugars, the flavor, wax, and food
dye in gum dissolves when it gets chewed. With all these ingredients dissolving, the
mass in the gum, changes. Dubble Bubble and Bazooka contain the most amount of
sugar (88.9%). Then comes Bubble Yum at 75%, Hubba Bubba Max at 62.5%,
Trident at 55.6%, Orbit at 52.6%, and finally, Extra at 37%. All of the gums are
December 17, 2012
Ally Harper and Jenna Barry
Period 1
naturally or artificially flavored, and Orbit contains the most food coloring. Using
this information a Hypothesis can be formed.
Hypothesis:
Based on this information, it can be predicted that Dubble Bubble may lose
the most mass. This can be expected because a big majority of one piece is sugar.
These sugars take up 88.9% of the gum piece. Of the 11.1% of the gum left gum
base, flavoring, and coloring are still to be dissolved. Anyone who has chewed a
piece of Hubba Bubba can conclude that it is extremely waxy. After that wax
dissolves the flavoring and coloring are still left. These dissolve after chewing it for
a while. Therefore the piece of gum will go from 100% mass to a percentage in the
single digits, losing the most mass.
Materials Used:
 Piece of paper (filter)
 A pencil
 A triple beam balance
 Different types of Gum brands
 A calculator
December 17, 2012
Ally Harper and Jenna Barry
Period 1
Procedure:
1. Get a brand of gum
2. Get a piece of paper
3. Get a triple beam balance
4. Zero the scale on the triple beam balance
5. Find the mass of the paper with your name on it- move the weights until the
balance is equal and at zero
6. Record the data
7. Make sure the balance is at zero then place gum on triple beam balance (on
top of the paper) with no wrapping on it
8. Find the mass of the gum that hasn’t been chewed
9. Subtract the mass of the paper from the mass of the gum
10. The remaining number is the mass of the un-chewed gum. Record it.
11.Take the gum off the paper and place into your mouth and chew for 5
minutes
12. Get all of the saliva that you can off the gum before you spit it out
13. Place the gum onto paper
14. Place the paper and gum onto the triple beam balance
15. Find the mass of the chewed gum
16. Once you find it, then you subtract the mass of the paper from the mass of
the chewed gum
17. Now, subtract the mass of the gum after it was chewed from the original
mass of the gum to get the mass lost.
18. Divide the mass lost (difference) by the original mass.
19. Find the quotient and then multiply that by 100 and then you’ll have the
percent lost.
December 17, 2012
Ally Harper and Jenna Barry
Period 1
20. See your groups answers and add them all of them up
21. Then divide the answer by how many people you had by your group. Then
you’ll have the average mass lost
Data:
Personal Group Data Table
The Amount of Mass Lost
in Bubbalicious Gum!
Trial
Number
Original New Mass
Mass Lost
Mass
(After (Difference)
(Prechewing)
chewing)
Ally
7.6 3.1 4.5 59.2%
7.7 3.5 4.2 54.5%
Jenna
Percent of
Mass Lost
December 17, 2012
Ally Harper and Jenna Barry
Period 1
Class Data Table
Brand of
Bubble Gum
Percent of Mass
Lost
#1
#2
#3
#4
Avg. %
Mass
Lost
Bubbalici
ous
Hubba Bubba
Max
Trident
54.5%
59.2%
20.7%
22.8% 12.5% 14.8%
55.5%
66.6% 66.6%
62.9%
Orbit
55%
40%
51.6%
Bazooka
62%
57.7% 70%
56.8%
60%
12.9
16.6%
63%
December 17, 2012
Ally Harper and Jenna Barry
Period 1
Dubble
Bubble
Bubble Yum
75%
80.3%
54%
56%
77.6%
53%
54%
Analysis and Conclusion Questions:
1. The piece that lost the most % of mass was Dubble Bubble Hubba Bubba
Max, lost the least percent of mass.
2. We use percent mass lost verses just mass lost because every piece of gum
has a different size
3. The wax, food dye, sugars, and flavoring are ingredients that caused the
mass to change. The lost mass is either digested of is distributed throughout
the body.
4. The wax helps keep the gums shape. The sugar and flavoring give it it’s taste
(or flavor). The food dye gives the gum it’s color.
5. Yes, the outlier would be Hubba Bubba Max at 16.6% because the percent is
very low compared to the other gums.
December 17, 2012
Ally Harper and Jenna Barry
Period 1
Conclusion:
It was earlier hypothesized that Dubble Bubble may lose the most mass.
After experimenting with the 7 different gum brands, this hypothesis has been
proven to be supported. While Dubble Bubble lost the most mass (an average of
77.6% lost), the gum that lost the least (an average of 16.6%) was Hubba Bubba
Max, and all the other gums fell in between. Dubble Bubble lost most of its mass
from its sugars. Also wax, food dye, and flavoring caused the mass to decrease.
Since Dubble Bubble contained a great deal of these ingredients it reduced the
amount of mass.