Which Gum Blows The Biggest Bubble

For our project we decided to find out which brand of bubble gum could produce the biggest bubbles. We used six different brands and gave the person chewing the gum 1 minute to chew and then blow a bubble, we also made a prediction: that Hubba Bubba would make the biggest bubbles. What we found out is that gum base is what makes chewing gum and bubble gum chewy, what ingredient makes Hubba Bubba able to produce bigger bubbles and what the psi difference is between human lungs and vinegar and bicarbonate of soda.

This is all the equipment we used for the experiment:

You are viewing: Which Gum Blows The Biggest Bubble

• 1 pack of Hubba Bubba gum
• 1 pack of Juicy Fruit
• 1 pack of Bazooka
• 1 pack of Mentos
• 1 pack of Chupa Chups Babol
• Calliper

This is the method we used:

1. Gather all the equipment (see equipment list)
2. Weigh out all the pieces of gum so that the mass is the same for each (the mass we used was 4.2g which is equal to 2 Mentos)
3. Take a piece of gum, chew it for 1 minute (ensure that there are no holes) and blow a bubble
4. Measure the width of the bubble that has been blown with a calliper
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until the experiment has been completed with all the brands of bubble gum
6. Repeat the experiment again so the results are accurate

Although this experiment seemed quite safe, we did have to make sure we handled the calliper carefully because it didn’t belong to us, so we had to ensure that it did not break.

Independent variable – The type of bubble gum

Dependent variable – The width of the bubble

Control Variables –

• The mass of the bubble gum (4.2g)
• The time it’s chewed for (1 minute)
• The person chewing and blowing the gum

Our results concluded that Hubba Bubba was able to make the biggest bubbles and Mentos made the smallest bubbles because it is a chewing gum as opposed to being a bubble gum. Gum base is what makes chewing gum chewy and it’s present in all gums, but chewing gum base is different to bubble gum base because it is a natural gum called chicle. Chicle is the sap of a tropical tree called the sopapilla tree and is chewy but cannot be blown into big bubbles. On the other hand, bubble gum base is man made and contains a mixture of starches and polymers; it is specially formulated to blow big bubbles. What we also found out was why Hubba Bubba was able to make such big bubbles; it’s due to an ingredient in it called corn syrup. Corn syrup is a thick , starchy liquid that will strengthen the bubble gum and allow it to be blown into a bigger bubble before it pops. Corn syrup is found in Juicy Fruit as well as Hubba Bubba, but the chewing gum base in it prevented it from being blown into a bigger bubble. This is also why, despite being a chewing gum too, Juicy Fruit made bigger bubbles that Mentos; Mentos chewing gum doesn’t contain corn syrup. I think the results we produced were highly reliable, as we completed the experiment twice and got the same or very similar results both times and made sure we kept to all the control variables (same mass of gum, same time it’s chewed for and same person chewing and blowing the gum). However, I think there still could still be a small margin of error because we had a very limited amount of time to measure the bubble; only a few seconds. This wasn’t enough time to be as accurate as we wanted to be, and for this reason the results may not be 100% correct. There is nothing we could have done to prevent this from happening though, as manufacturers have not yet designed a bubble gum that produces bubbles which can only be popped with a sharp object – like a balloon. Bubble gum bubbles pop very easily, and we couldn’t let the calliper touch the bubble, which is also why there may be small errors. We also think an interesting future experiment would be to blow up the gum with a vinegar and bicarbonate of soda mixture instead. It would produce bigger bubbles because human lungs can only produce a psi of 14.4, but a mixture of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda can produce a psi of 20-40 (using 45g of bicarb and 237ml of vinegar can produce 20 psi). PSI is a unit of force.

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In conclusion, we managed to find out which brand of bubble gum made the biggest bubbles, and we even got our prediction correct; Hubba Bubba produced the biggest bubbles. The largest one was 10cm in width! This was one of the cheaper bubble gums (65p), whereas Mentos was one of the most expensive (£2.25). While this might not be a contributing factor, sometimes the more expensive things don’t do the better job.

Ingredients in the different brands of gum:

Bazooka bubble gum:

Blue raspberry: sugar, glucose syrup, gum base, artificial flavours, citric acid, glycerine, malic acid, aspartame, blue 1 lake, acesulfame potassium, soya lecithin, titanium dioxide, BHT (preservative)

bibliography – http://www.candymania.com/articles/bazooka-nutrition-information

(2016, June 27)

Mentos chewing gum:

Xylitol, chewing gum base, sorbitol, mannitol, glycerol, malitol syrup, natural and artificial flavours, contains less than 2% of: gum arabic, colour (titanium dioxide), gelatine, soyalecithin, aspartame, acesulfame K, green tea extract, carnauba wax, sucralose, sodium carboxymethycelluose, BHT to maintain

bibliography – http://us.mentos.com/mentos-gum-pure-fresh-fresh-mint (2016, June 27)

Juicy Fruit chewing gum:

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Sugar, gum base, corn syrup, dextrose, less than 2% of: natural and artificial flavours, glycerol, soy lecithin, aspartame, acesulfame K, hydroxylated soy lecithin, colour (yellow 5 lake), titanium dioxide, BHT (to maintain freshness). Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine

bibliography – http://hubpages.com/health/Wrigleys-Juicy-Fruit-Gum-Ingredients-Explained

(2016, June 27)

Hubba Bubba bubble gum:

Sugar, gum base, corn syrup; less than 2% of: glycerol, natural and artificial flavours, soy lecithin, acesulfame K, aspartame, colour (red 40 lake), BHT (to maintain freshness). Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine

bibliography – http://www.wrigley.com/global/brands/nutrition.aspx (2016, July 11)

Chupa Chups Babol bubble gum:

Sugar, gum base, glucose syrup, stabiliser (glycerol), flavouring, emulsifiers (sucrose esters of fatty acids, soya lecithin), colour (carmines), antioxidant (E321).

bibliography – http://chupachups.co.uk/bubblegum_detail_bigbabol.html (2016, July 11)

bibliography –

• http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-does-gum-lose-its-flavour (2016, July 11)
• http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiemt/bubble-gum (2016, July 11)
• http://www.ehow.com/info-tip_7957913_corn_syrup-bubble.html (2016, July 11)
• http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?88019-how-much-psi-can-human-lungs-make (2016, July 11)
• http://www.instructables.com/id/Baking-Soda-and-Vinegar-Cannon (2016, July 11)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pounds_per_square_inch (2016, July 11)

Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHICH