Yolanda Sitepu

Hubba Gubba bubble gum practical

Background

Bubble gum is made of two different type of saps that collected from the tree. The first type of sap is
the gum base of the latex sap of sapodilla tree or naseberry tree. This tree grows in Mexico, Central
America, and tropical section of South America. The second type of sap is gutta siak sap, this is a
rubber-like sap that obtained from the trees that grow in Netherlands. This sap was found to be fun
to chew and probably could blow bubbles with this sap; or artificial polyethylene or polyvinyl
acetate, sugar or corn syrup and many other ingredients. The packaging indicates the information of
the bubble gum pellet weighs 7 gram of which 5 gram of sugar on the bubble gum.

Aim

The aim of this experiment is to determine the percent sugar in a piece of bubble gum and compare
it to the other flavour.

Hypothesis

The Hubba Gubba bubble gum mass will decrease because of sugar easily breaks down due to the
saliva in the mouth.

Material

- Hubba Gubba bubble gum

- Electronic balance

Method

1. A piece of grape flavour bubble gum and its wrapper were weighted up on the electronic
balance and result tabulated
2. The grape bubble gum was unwrapped and keep the wrapper.
3. The empty wrapper was weighted and result tabulated
4. The bubble gum was chewed for 20 minutes.
5. After 20 minutes the grape flavour bubble gum was put back into the empty wrapper.
6. The wrapper and grape flavour bubble gum was re-weighted and result tabulated
7. The wrapper and the grape flavour bubble gum was disposed into the trash.
Result

- Class result of the percentage (%) mass of the gum

Flavour %
person
Strawberry Grape Original
1 27 25 42.9
2 27.4 27 40.24
3 28.5 27 39.94
4 27.9 25.96 38.5
5 28.05 25.7
6 26.8 28.5
7 27.49
average 27.59 26.52 40.41

- Class result table of the percentage % sugar in the gum

o Strawberry: % sugar - % mass of the gum = 100% - 27.59% = 72.41%
o Grape: % sugar - % mass of the gum = 100% - 26.52% = 73.48%
o Original: % sugar - % mass of the gum = 100% - 40.41% = 59.59%

Raw data of personal result

Mass (g)
Wrapper 0.15
Initial mass bubble gum
7.42
and wrapper
Final mass bubble gum 2.04
and wrapper

calculated data of personal result

Mass (g)
Initial mass of bubble gum 7.27
Final mass of bubble gum 1.89
Mass of sugar only 5.38

𝐹𝐺
The percentage mass of the gum is 25.99% through the formula % of mass = 𝐼𝐺 × 100%.

The percentage sugar in the gum is 74% through the formula

𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑟
% of sugar = × 100%.
𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑏𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑚

5.38
=7.27 × 100%.

= 74%
Data package / piece Data package

7 gram Serving size 100 gram

Serving size
Carbohydrate (CHO) 74 gram
Carbohydrate (CHO) 5 gram Sugar 64 gram
Sugar 5 gram
64
5 % sugar × 100% = 64%
% sugar × 100% = 71.42% 100
7

Observation

It takes around 2 minutes to make the Hubba Gubba bubble gum grape flavour and sugar fully lost.

Analysis

Assumption

- All the sugar in the bubble gum dissolved by chewing the gum
- Only sugar was removed while chewing the gum

The sugar content in the chewing gum might have been digested by chewing the bubble gum and this
is this will affect the mass of the bubble gum because the mass that being chewing out of the bubble
gum is assumed to be all sugar.

The strawberry and grape flavour of the bubble gum contained approximately 73% of sugar and the
original one is 60% of sugar by the mass of bubble gum. The amount of sugar in a piece of bubble gum
is 71.4%, which is much closed to the calculated sugar in the both of the strawberry and grape flavour.
And the original flavour has less sugar in a piece of the bubble gum than the flavoured bubble gum.
The systematic errors are the electronic balance and stopwatch might not correctly calibrated, and
also the saliva of the chewer’s might have stuck to the bubble gum while chewing the bubble gum.
The random errors are inconsistently chewing the bubble gum for 20 minute and might not stopped
the stopwatch exactly at 20 minutes.

Evaluation

The systematic error can be minimised by using different electronic balance and stopwatch, also when
using the electronic balance don’t forget to tare the electronic balance, and also dry the bubble gum
for several second to make sure there’s no more chewer’s saliva in the bubble gum. The random errors
can be minimised by averaging the class result and practice to chew the bubble gum consistently.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this is an accurate experiment because the bubble gum contained the exact amount of
sugar and the percentage of sugar in a piece of flavoured bubble gum but not as much as the original
bubble gum.