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THE STRETCH OF GUM AFTER BEING CHEWED FOR A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF
TIME.
Nadeen Atieh
Cary Academy
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was to determine how far gum can stretch after being chewed
for a certain amount of time. Also the purpose of the study was to see how far gum can
stretch after being soaked in a certain type of soda and then chewed for a certain
amount of time. It was found that gum is first made with natural latex (which comes
from trees) or artificial latex which comes in large boxes. Various brands of gum were
tested to determine how far gum can stretch after being chewed for a certain amount of
time. It was determined that when put in different drinks that once put in nothing or not
being soaked at all before the gum was chewed. It was also determined that when
chewed for a long time the gum stretched longer. This seems because if chewed for a
long time the gum stretches in the mouth so when truly stretched the gum stretches the
most. Also it sees that gum stretches the longest when put in nothing because when put
in a drink the chemicals in that drink start to mix with the gum and the does not allow the
gum to stretch as much as that type of gum should stretch.
INTRODUCTION
Gum is first made with natural latex (which comes from trees) or artificial latex which
comes in large boxes. They are grounded into small chunks and placed in a dry room
for a couple days. Once dry the chicle is put into a kettle until it melts. The chicle then is
processed to remove any kind of bugs, and bark. Once the chicle is processed it is put
into another kettle and stirred with powdered sugar, corn syrup, color, flavorings, and
softeners. The mixture then is cooled and kneaded for many hours the right texture.
The chicle then is dusted with P sugar and cut with a machine. Another machine cuts
the pieces into sized pieces. Then the scored sheets are stored until they reach the right
humidity and temperature. After that the sheets are broken down along the lines into
individual sticks. The sticks are then wrapped individually, packaged, boxed, and
shipped.
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Chewing gum has existed since 5,000 years ago. The ancient Aztecs used bark tar in
order to make the gum. Women back then had used the gum as a mouth freshener.
Also in Ancient Greece they made gum. They used a mastic tree to make the gum and
the gum they chewed was called mastic gum. Many other cultures use different
substances to make the gum. Modern chewing gum in the 1860’s was chicle exported
from Mexico in order to make a rubber substance. The chicle soon was not able to
make the rubber, so the replacement soon was gum and it was chosen all over the
world. Soon chicle as no longer able to produce gum and the U.S. came up with
something called Synthetic gum.
Human saliva is very important to the digestion system because Chemical digestion in
the mouth involves saliva. Most of the saliva is unseen by three pairs of salivary glands.
One type is parotid, another is submandibular, and the last one is sublingual. These
three pairs of salivary glands are found underneath the tongue or in front of the
masseter muscle. This muscle provides the most force when biting. The parotid glands
provide water secretion, the sublingual gland provides a very Mucoid secretion, and the
last gland submandibular provides both water secretion and Mucoid secretion. Both of
these secretions together make normal saliva. If somebody becomes dehydrated the
saliva becomes thick and comes mostly from sublingual glands. Saliva has multiple
purposes like cleaning the mouth, disintegrating food, moistening food, and beginning
the chemical digestion system. The secretion of the salivary glands is under control of
the autonomic nervous system, which can control the volume and the type of saliva
secreted. Acini in the parotid glands are very serious. While the sublingual glands are
mostly just mucous cells. Saliva has many important functions including oral hygiene, it
waters dry food, and it lubricates or binds food or whatever is in your mouth.
Mac Harman did an experiment in the past using gum. She was studying which brand of
gum lasts the longest without losing flavor and she also did an experiment about what
brand of gum can blow the largest bubble. She used three types of gum Extra, Trident,
and 5. In the first experiment she found out that Extra gum lasts the longest. In the next
experiment she did she found out that Extra gum blew the largest bubble, Trident blew a
good sized bubble, and 5 gums blew the worst bubble out of the three brands of gum.
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Figure 1: The gum was dipped in water and hen stretched
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this experiment, Winter Fresh gum, Double Mint gum, Extra Classic bubble gum,
Vanilla Coca-Cola, Sprite, Diet Coca-Cola, Orange Juice, Lemon Juice, Lime Juice, a
meter stick, a timer, and a table.
All three types of gum were chewed for a certain amount of time. They then were
stretched out to see how far each gum can stretch. This process was repeated multiple
times. This was done three times and the average then was taken. This was done with
all three different brands of gum.
All three types of gum were chewed for a certain amount of time. They then were placed
in Vanilla Coca-Cola for zero min, five min, ten min, twenty min, and forty min. This
process was repeated three times and the average was found. This was done with one
brand of gum, Winter Fresh.
One type of gum was placed in five different types of soda for three min. Once the gum
was taken out of the soda the gum was chewed for five min and then was stretched.
This process was repeated three times for each type of soda and the average then was
taken. This was done with Extra Classic bubble gum, vanilla coca- cola, diet coca- cola,
sprite, water, and nothing.
One type of gum was chewed for a certain amount of time. Once the gum was chewed
it was placed in five different types of juices for three min then the gum was stretched
and the average was taken. This process was repeated three times for each of the five
juices. This was done with Winterfresh gum, Orange Juice, Lemon Juice, Lime Juice,
water, and nothing.
One type of gum was chewed for a certain amount of time. Once the gum was chewed
it was placed in five different types of sodas for five min and the average was taken.
This process was repeated three times for each of the times it was dipped in the five
sodas. This was done using Winterfresh gum, vanilla coca- cola, diet coca- cola, sprite,
water, and nothing.
One type of gum was chewed for a certain amount of time but it was chewed by girls
and boys. This process was repeated three times and the average was taken. This was
done using Double Mint gum.
One type of gum was dipped in five different types of drinks for a certain amount of time.
The gum then was taken out and chewed for a certain amount of time. This process
was repeated three times for each of the different types of sodas and the average was
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taken. This was done using Extra Classic bubble gum, vanilla coca- cola, diet cocacola, sprite, water, and nothing.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
180
160
Gum Stretch (cm)
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Sprite
Vanilla Coke
Diet Coke
NO soke
Water
Type of Drink
Figure 2: The stretch of gum after being chewed for a certain amount of time and then dipped in soda for a certain amount of
time.
When put in water for a certain amount of time after being chewed, the gum stretched
the most. This is because all the sodas contained caffeine which mixed with the gum
and lessened the amount stretched. Water contains no caffeine so that is why in water
the gum stretched the most. This experiment was tested using Winter Fresh gum.
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Figure 3: Gum was chewed by Girls and boys and it was determined that the gum girls chewed stretched the most.
While chewed for a certain amount of time by girls and boys, it was determined that the
gum the girls chewed was the stretched the longest. This happened because when girls
chew they do not press the gum hard in their mouth, they chew softly which allows the
gum to stretch longer. This experiment was tested using Double mint gum.
The stretch of gum(cm)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Orange Juice Lemon Juice
Lime Juice
water
nothing
Type of juice
Figure 4: It was proved that once put in nothing after being chewed, the gum stretched the longest.
Once put in nothing for a certain amount of time and then taken out and chewed for a
certain amount of time, the gum stretches the longest once stretched. This is because in
nothing you just chew so there is no liquid on the gum which can prevent the gum from
stretching a certain distance. This experiment was tested using Extra Classic bubble
gum.
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60
gum stretch(cm)
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
amount left out(min)
Figure 5: The gum was left out for a certain amount of time after being chewed and then the gum was stretched after the
time ended.
When left out for 40 min the gum stretched out the longest. This would be because
when put out for a while the saliva starts to dry which allows the gum to stretch as much
as it normally should stretch. This experiment was tested using Extra Classic bubble
gum.
60
Stretch of gum(cm)
50
40
30
20
10
0
Sprite
Diet Coke
vanilla coke
water
nothing
Type of drink
Figure 6: How far gum can stretch after being soaked in a certain type of soda for a certain amount of time and then chewed
for a certain amount of time.
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When put in diet coke for a certain amount of time and then chewed the gum stretches
the longest. This is because since the diet coke that was used had no caffeine, a when
the gum was mixed with the soda the caffeine did not prevent the gum from stretching a
certain length. The experiment was tested using Extra classic bubble gum.
180
160
Gum Stretch (cm)
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Sprite
Vanilla Coke
Diet Coke
NO soke
Water
Type of Drink
Figure 7: The stretch of gum after being chewed for a certain amount of time and then dipped in soda for a certain amount of
time.
When put in soda after being chewed for a certain amount of time, the gum stretched
the longest when put in vanilla coca- cola and water. When put in both the gum
stretched the same length. This is because water has no caffeine, and vanilla coca- cola
had the least amount of caffeine. This experiment was used with Sprite, Vanilla CocaCola, Nothing, Water, and Winterfresh.
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60
Stretch of gum(cm)
50
40
30
20
10
0
Sprite
Diet Coke
vanilla coke
water
nothing
Type of drink
Figure 8: The gum was chewed for a certain amount of time and then put in a drink for a certain amount of time, then the
gum was stretched
When the gum was chewed for a certain amount of time and then put in diet coca- cola
the gum stretched the longest. This is because diet coca- cola did not have any sugar
which would prevent the gum from stretching the longest, but since there was no sugar
the gum stretched pretty long. This is why the results were the results. In this
experiment Sprite, Diet Coke, Vanilla Coke, Water, nothing, and Double Mint gum were
used.
CONCLUSION
It was determined that in all the experiments the brand of gum that stretched the longest
distance was Winterfresh. It is important because if you ever wanted to test how long
gum stretched using Winterfresh, Double Mint, and Extra Classic bubble gum, you
would be able to know right away that Winterfresh would stretch the longest in any of
the experiments you would like to do. The hypothesis that was concluded before the
experiments were done was correct because it was determined Winterfresh stretched
the longest. A future experiment that would be able to determine the stretch of gum
would be that you chew the gum for about 10 min, then dip the gum in acid for about 2
min, then see how far the gum can stretch.
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CITATIONS
Bailey, Regina, “Salivary Glands and Saliva”, Biology, About.com, 2013
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
Harman, Mac THE STUDY OF WHAT BRAND OF GUM LAST THE LONGEST
WITHOUT LOSING FLAVOR AND TO SEE WHAT BRAND CAN BLOW THE
BIGGEST BUBBLE, Cary Academy
"Mouth." Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia Britannica Online School
Edition.
“Sure-To-Win Science Fair projects”.Rhatigan, Joe.New York, Lark Books. Web. 2001
“The digestive system”. Avraham, Regina. New York, Chelsea House. Web. 1989