Nov 10, 2010

Making of a Scientist

On our daily drive home form school my daughter usually has several questions about every conceivable topic, yesterday was no different. Being on a quest to blow her first bubble, and armed with a piece of Double Bubble bubble  gum, and knowing she has to chew out all of the sugar first, she asks me how much sugar is in gum, and how can you tell. 


My mind turns to Archimedes and the legend that he discovered displacement theory. Though to test our troubling gum question we would not be able to use displacement as a measuring tool, we could use a scale and measure the weight difference and get pretty close.


After returning home, chores, homework, and the table set for dinner. We began our experiment.


                     We would need;
            
                      a piece of un-chewed bubblegum
                      a scale
                      sugar
                      notepad




Step 1;  Weigh gum and record weight
Step 2;  Chew gum till no longer any sugar left in gum
Step 3;  Weigh gum and record weight
Step 4;  Check record difference in weight
Step 5;  Add sugar to scale until weighs as much as difference
Step 6;  Measure by volume how much sugar.
Step 7;  Record data
Step 8;  Publish and wait for nobel prize!


This was good fun and took only about fifteen minutes. Heres the data


The un-chewed gum weighed in at about 6 grams. 
After chewing the gum didn't even register a gram. Weight of gum after chewing less than a gram.
Total sugar in a piece of Double Bubble bubblegum approximately 6 grams of sugar or about a table spoon.


Doing an experiment with your daughter priceless!

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