Lab:
Bubble Gum Sugar Mass
Question:
Name
Date
What percent of the mass of a piece of bubble gum is sugar?
Research:
Gum has been in use by people around the world from thousands of years in various forms and
flavors. It has been recorded by archaeologists that men and women thousands of year ago, chewed gum in the
form of tree resin lumps, they enjoyed doing so.
Chewing gum was first sold commercially in 1848 when the Curtis brothers, residents of Maine,
experimented on spruce tree resin and made a sticky, rubbery material which they tried and chewed. They
found that interesting to chew it and thought that it could make money for them. This was the first time in history
when the chewing gum was sold commercially. Two years after their successful experiment with the spruce tree
resin, which they converted into gum, they started with their first major gum manufacturing plant. They also
added flavor to the gum and introduced paraffin in it to give extra soft and rubbery feel. The plant was named
"Curtis Chewing Gum Factory".
Most of gum’s mass is sugar. Sugar dissolves readily in water, and about equally well in saliva.
Most of the flavor in gum is due to the sugar, which dissolves in saliva and is swallowed, never to be tasted
again. You may have also noticed that the size of a wad of gum decreases considerably in the first 10 or 15
minutes of chewing. This change in volume is due to that same loss of sugar. In the case of sugarless gum, the
sweetener used is typically a synthetic compound known as sorbitol, which may be listed as "sugar alcohol" on
the nutrition label. It occurs in about the same proportion as does sugar in regular gum.
Hypothesis:
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Materials:
1 piece of bubble gum, balance, calculator
Procedure:
1. Find the mass of your bubble gum while it is still in the wrapper. Measure to the
nearest 0.1 g. Do not discard the wrapper. Record your data in the Table 1,
unchewed mass.
2. Chew the gum for exactly 10 minutes. By this time it should have little or no flavor
left.
3. Put the gum back in the wrapper. Find the mass of the chewed gum. Measure to the
nearest 0.1 g. Record your data in Table 1.
4. Determine the amount of mass lost due to chewing. Record your data in Table 1.
5. Calculate the percentage of mass lost. Record your data in Table 1.
6. Place the data for two other students into Table 1.
7. Calculate the averages in Table 1.
Data:
Table 1
Mass of
unchewed gum
(g)
Your Data
Student #2
Student #3
Student #4
Average
Mass of chewed
gum (g)
Mass loss after
chewing (g)
Mass of sugar in
gum (g)
Percentage of
mass loss
Analysis:
1. Create a bar graph illustrating your data.
2. Be sure to include a title, label the X and Y axis, and use the space on the graph wisely.
Conclusion:
1. How did your percentage compare with your average?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. List two explanations for percentage differences in the class results.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. How will the weight losses compare in sugared gum versus sugarless gum?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
4. Which of these types of gum would lose the most mass? Fruit flavored, cinnamon flavored, or mint
flavored? Explain your answer.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________