THE AMOUNT OF TIME IT TAKES FOR DIFFERENT BRANDS OF WHIPPED
CREAM TO LIQUEFY
Suki Bristol
Cary Academy
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to determine what brand of whipped cream liquefies the
fastest. Whipped cream is kept big and fluffy because the air particles inside pushes
against the walls of the whipped cream creating enough pressure to keep it up. By
putting 14 g of different brands of whipped cream into a glass beaker which was then
put into the microwave for 1 min and afterwards the volume decrease was measured. It
was determined that Great Value had the strongest whipped cream and Reddi-Whip
was the weakest whipped cream, leaving Harris Teeter’s brand of whipped cream in the
middle. Microwaves suck out the water of whatever is inside the microwave, ReddiWhip had less water in it than Harris Teeter or Great Value causing the Reddi-Whip to
get very hot with less water.
INTRODUCTION
Whipped Cream is a very sweet, fluffy, topping that many people put on top of desserts,
sweets, or snacks. Whipped Cream is a mixture of cream, sugar, and a little vanilla
extract. When making whipped cream it is “beaten” or “whipped” in air. The term for
liquefying whipped cream is “weeping.” The whipped cream that weeps the least is the
whipped cream that is the strongest. Whipped cream has to be strong enough to hold
trapped air particles for a while. Whipped cream is a type of foam, a liquid that is mixed
with air.
Whipped Cream can be multiple different forms of matter. Matter is classified into three
groups, solid, liquid, and gas. A solid keeps a definite shape without changing, while
liquids and gases can’t keep a definite shape. To change the shape of a solid, there
must be a certain amount of force used. The force may either be large or small,
depending on the shape and size of the object. Squeezing or stretching a solid can
change the shape as well as the volume of the solid. When solids are heated up they
turn into a liquid then as it gets even hotter in temperature they will turn to a gas. Other
solids like limestone just decompose when they are heated up. Dry ice is one of the only
solids that does not transform into a liquid before turning into a gas. Dry ice turns
straight from a solid into a gas. Particles in a gas move around easily and fast. Particles
in a liquid vibrate at a medium speed and slide past each one another easily. While
particles in a solid vibrate a little bit but mostly cannot move from place to place.
Microwaves send out “micro-waves” which suck out all the moisture and water from the
object inside the microwave. When objects don’t have much moisture to be sucked out
the object will just heat up a lot. When an object has quite a bit of moisture in them the
microwave will suck out all the moisture rather than make the object hot.
Whipped cream, keeps its big and fluffy shape because there are air particles inside the
walls of the whipped cream which are pushing out against the walls forcing the whipped
cream to stay big and fluffy. Whipped cream will start liquefying when the air particles
that are trapped inside the walls of the whipped cream escape. Once the air particles
have escaped the whipped cream will have no air particles inside it anymore and it will
have nothing keeping up the walls pushing it out and forcing it to be big and fluffy, which
will then cause the walls of the whipped cream to cave in and liquefy, causing the
whipped cream lose its shape.
Figure 1: A homemade diagram showing why whipped cream liquefies
Sydney Brown did a sort of similar experiment and tested how different types of
chocolates melt in human hands. Then in follow up experiments Brown tested how
different chocolates melted in human mouths or while exercising. After testing
Hershey’s, Divine, Dove, White, Dark, and Milk Godiva chocolate. It was determined
that Hershey’s chocolate melted the fastest and out of different types of Godiva
chocolates Godiva milk chocolate melted the quickest.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this experiment, glass beakers, a weight scale, a microwave, a plastic ruler, plastic
beakers, paper cups, a timer, napkins, Reddi-Whip whipped cream, Great Value
whipped cream, Harris Teeter whipped cream, a calculator, and a computer was used.
Whipped cream was tested to see how long it would take to liquefy, when put into a
microwave. There was 14 g of whipped cream in a glass beaker. After being put into the
microwave for 1 min the whipped cream was taken out and measured, to see how much
of a volume decrease there was. The experiment was repeated three times with three
different brands of whipped cream including Great Value, Harris Teeter, and ReddiWhip to see which brand of whipped cream liquefies the fastest being in a microwave.
Reddi-Whip was put in the microwave for different times including 45 sec, 60 sec, and
75 sec. After 14 g of whipped cream had been put in the microwave, it was measured to
see if the time that the whipped cream was in the microwave affected how much of a
volume decrease there was.
Reddi-Whip was left out for 45 sec, 60 sec, and 75 sec. Before being left out a plastic
ruler was inserted into the whipped cream and the top of the whipped cream on the ruler
was the starting amount. After a certain amount of time a plastic ruler was inserted into
a glass beaker again and after being inserted and taken out the top of the whipped
cream on the ruler was seen, therefore showing the height decrease of the whipped
cream.
11g of Reddi-Whip was put into different materials including paper cups, plastic
beakers, and glass beakers. Once put into the appropriate material container the ReddiWhip was measured by having a plastic ruler inserted into the whipped cream then the
top mark of whipped cream on the ruler was noted in cm. After being left out for 1 min
another plastic ruler was inserted into the Reddi-Whip and the top mark of the whipped
cream on the plastic ruler was noted of again in cm. After subtracting the starting mark
and the ending mark the decrease of height was given.
11 g of Reddi-Whip was once again put into three different material containers including
paper cups, plastic beakers, and glass beakers. After the Reddi-Whip was in the
appropriate container a plastic ruler was inserted into the whipped cream once again
and the height of the starting point of the whipped cream was noted. The whipped
cream was then left out for 10 min. After 10 min a plastic ruler was once again inserted
into the container and the height of the whipped cream was noted again in cm. Then
again subtracting the starting height of the whipped cream and the ending height of the
whipped cream the height decrease of the Reddi-Whip was given.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
180
volume decreased (mL)
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Reddi-Whip
Harris Teeter
Great Value
Brand of Whipped Cream
Figure 2: The volume decrease of different brands of whipped cream after being put in the microwave
Great Value whipped cream was the strongest and held the air particles inside the
longest. It only had a 113.5 mL decrease, after being put in the microwave for 1 min.
Harris Teeter’s brand of whipped cream decreased by 120.56 mL when taken out of the
microwave, Reddi-Whip had a volume decrease of 159.33 mL. Showing that Great
Value has the strongest whipped cream and it takes longer to “weep.” Reddi-Whip being
the weakest cannot hold air particles as long as the other brands.
140
Volume decrease (mL)
120
100
80
Microwave
60
In Air
40
20
0
0
20
40
60
80
Time in microwave or in air (sec)
Figure 3: A comparison graph comparing whipped cream sitting out and whipped cream in the microwave
The decrease of the height in 1 minute (cm)
When put into the microwave for different times it was found that Reddi-Whip had the
largest volume decrease when put into the microwave for 75 sec, and had the largest
volume decrease when sitting out for 75 sec. It shows that when Reddi-Whip is out or in
the microwave for a longer period of time it will have a larger volume decrease. I saw
that there was a higher volume decrease when put for 60 sec rather than 45 sec on
both, although there is a large increase in the volume decrease in between 60 sec and
75 sec.
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Glass
Plastic
Paper
Material the Reddi-Whip was in
Figure 4: A graph showing the height decrease with Reddi-Whip in different materials
Reddi-Whip had the highest height decrease when in a glass beaker as supposed to in
a plastic beaker or a plastic cup. It was seen that Reddi-Whip had the least height
decrease in a plastic beaker. After the Reddi-Whip being put in a certain material
container, for 1 min, it was concluded that glass had the most height decrease while
plastic had the least height decrease meaning that paper was in the middle of glass and
plastic in height decrease.
0.91
The height decrease (cm)
0.9
0.89
0.88
0.87
0.86
0.85
0.84
Glass
Plastic
Paper
The material the Reddi-Whip liquefied in
Figure 5: A graph showing the height decrease in Reddi-Whip in different materials
Reddi-Whip had the highest height decrease when in glass and plastic beakers. After
Reddi-Whip was put in different material container including paper cups, plastic
beakers, and glass beakers for 10 min it showed that glass and plastic had the highest
height decrease and paper had the lowest height decrease. Coincidentally, glass and
plastic both had the exact same height decrease. That showed that paper had a height
decrease that was greatly lower than the two other materials.
CONCLUSION
The concluded data showed that Great Value has the strongest whipped cream and that
Reddi-Whip’s whipped cream has weak walls and cannot hold the air particles inside
nearly as long. This data can be important for letting others know what brand of
whipped cream is the strongest and which brand will weep the fastest. The hypothesis
that was formed was not correct, it was predicted that Reddi-Whip brand would have the
strongest whipped cream and would take the longest to weep, while Great Value is the
strongest whipped cream Reddi-Whip was the weakest. It would be interesting to know
if the whipped cream comes in a tub or a bottle whether that affects how much it weeps
or not.
CITATIONS
Brown, Sydney. The Study of How Fast Different Types of Chocolates Melt in Human
Hands. Cary Academy. 2012. Print.
Cooper, Chris. Matter. New York Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
"foam." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
<http://school.eb.com/eb/article-9034714>.
Friedhoffer, Bob. Science Lab in a Supermarket. New York Franklin Watts, 1998.
Gases, Liquids, and Solids. http://www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/liquids/character.html.
[Accessed 21 Feb 2013].
Matter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter. [Accessed 21 Feb 2013].