Title: Loss of Mass in 7 Types of Gum
Purpose: To find which brand of gum loses the most mass
Background: What background knowledge shows about gum will be useful in
the bubble gum lab. One thing that background knowledge shows is that in
gum base there might be different ratios on wax to rubber to plastic. This
would affect the results because wax is the only part of gum base that
dissolves, so if there is next to nothing of wax, little mass would be lost from
the gum base. Also, sugar is a main ingredient in gum and sugar dissolves, so
sugar content will affect the test results. Also, past experience shows that
some gums last longer than others. That means that some gum types will have
lost all its flavor, wax, sugars, and other dissolvable ingredients after five
minutes, but others will still have most of theirs, so how quickly a gum loses
its dissolvable ingredients would certainly affect the outcome. In summary,
sugar content, gum base, and how quickly the ingredients dissolve will make a
huge difference in determining which gum will lose the most mass.
Materials:

Massing Paper

Gum

Triple Beam Balance

Instructions

Graph Paper (Possibly)

Pencil

Paper

Calculator
Hypothesis: In the bubble gum lab, the gum brand Bazooka will most likely
lose the greatest amount of mass over the seven different types of gum. It will
likely lose the most mass because it has the highest sugar content (88.8%),
and sugar is dissolvable. Gum base is second on the ingredient list. Gum base
is consisted of rubber, plastic, and wax. If the ratio of wax is very low in the
gum base, it means that only a little mass would be lost due to the fact that
wax melts. In any ingredient list, the ingredients are listed by volume from
most to least. Bazooka’s first 4 ingredients are at least partially dissolvable.
Out of the seven different gum types, Bazooka has the highest dissolvable
content, so it will lose the most mass.
Procedure:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Get materials
Weigh the massing paper
Weigh the not chewed gum outside of the wrapper on massing paper
Subtract the overall weight by the massing table
Record data
Chew gum for five minutes
Spit gum out
Weigh the chewed gum on massing paper
Record data
Data:
Personal Group Table
Gum Brand: Bazooka
Jon
Original Mass
4.0
New Mass
1.2
Mass Lost
2.8
Percent Mass Lost
70%
Eric
Herby
Analysis and Conclusion questions:
1. The gum that lost the most mass is Double Bubble and the gum that lost the
least mass is Hubba Bubba Max.
2. We used percentage because each gum has a different weight like 2g might
be a small loss to one gum but a big loss to another, so if we use percentage
we would find out if the 2g meant more to which gum in the mass lost.
3. The ingredients that caused mass loss is any dissolvable substance such as:
sugar, wax, flavoring, and food dye. These ingredients dissolve into our
stomachs but not all get digested.
4. The reason sugar is used in gum is to make it sweet, wax is so it will stay
hard and keep form in packaging, flavoring is where all the flavor in gum
comes from, and food dye gives gum it’s color.
5. There were 2 outliers in the class data. Hubba Bubba Max lost much less
mass than the other gum types, and double Bubble lost much more mass.
They probably had higher or lower ratios of dissolvable ingredients.
Conclusion:
It was predicted that the gum brand Bazooka would have lost the most mass.
This was incorrect. Bazooka was originally considered the gum that would’ve
lost the most mass, as many important ingredients were at least semidissolvable. In reality, Double Bubble lost the most mass, losing 77.6% of the
total mass. After further research, Double Bubble would indeed lose more
mass. Gum base, the 2nd most important ingredient in Bazooka, is 4th most
important in Double Bubble. Gum base does not dissolve completely. Double
Bubble’s first 3 ingredients dissolved completely. Of course, there were other
factors too. Because different people may chew gum differently, that would
also affect the result. Some of the gum could’ve gotten stuck on braces. Or,
perhaps just the ingredients were different. But it can be generalized that
Double Bubble loses more mass compared to Hubba Bubba Max, Trident,
Bazooka, Bubble Yum, Orbit, and Bubbalicious.