Han 1

Christiana Han
Mrs. Cardellio
Period 5
17-18 September 2014
The Gummy Bear Digital Laboratory Report Form

What is the relationship between density and polymer structure?

What will happen to a Gummy Bear when you put it in water overnight?

Hypothesis:
If the Gummy Bear is left overnight in water, then it will expand because of diffusion

Safety:
1. No horseplay
2. Don't eat anything from contaminated surfaces
3. Clean up after all spills

Test/Procedure
Materials:
1. Gummy bear and gummy worm
2. Ruler (in cm)
3. Scale
4. Paper towel
Procedure:
1. Choose one gummy bear and gummy worm
2. Record the color
3. Record the length, width, and thickness with the ruler
4. Find the volume
5. Measure the mass
6. Find density with the formula
7. Put gummy bear and gummy worm into a cup of water and leave overnight
8. Remove gummy from cup and dry off with a paper towel
9. Repeat number 2-6
10. Compare the amount of change





Han 2


Data and Observations
Qualitative Observations: The worm and bear both began to fade into a lighter shade of its
original form

Gummy Bear:
Day Bear
Color
Length Width Thickness Volume Mass Density
1 Red 2 cm 1cm 1 cm 2 2.567 1.284
2 Pink 3.2 cm 1.5 cm 2 cm 9.6 .407 .042
Amount
of
Change
Color got
lighter
1.2 cm .5 cm 1 cm 7.6 -2.16 -1.242

Gummy Worm:
Day Worm
Color
Length Width Thickness Volume Mass Density
1 Red-
Yellow
10 cm 1.2 cm 1 cm 12 9.295 .755
2 Pink-Clear 14.5 cm 1.9 cm 1.5 cm 41.324 22.095 .535
Amount
of
Change
Colors got
lighter
4.5 cm .7 cm .5 cm 29.324 12.8 .240

Claims:
If I leave the Gummy Bear in the water overnight, then its color will begin to fade.

Evidence:
I know my claim is true when I look at the recorded statistics. If you look at the column titled
"Bear Color" you can see that the color of the bear begins to fade. The process that makes the
Gummy Bears lighter is called diffusion. The Gummy Bears colors are replaced with water
molecules and they escape into the surrounding water.

Conclusion:
My hypothesis was proven correct, I predicted that the Gummy Bear would expand and
break apart, which it did. In my charts, the volume is greater because the gummy bear began to
absorb the water and it became larger. The density also changed, it became smaller than the
original one, because the water expanded the gummy bear molecules and they are more spread
out. My results are pretty average, mostly everyone with a few exceptions, had the same pattern
as me. Now focusing on the Gummy Bear at a molecular level. Gummy Bears are made up of
Han 3

gelatin. Which is a clear substance that is made by boiling the animal bones or tissues.

http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/hygel.html

When water is added to the gelatin at the molecular level, the gelatin molecules expand and
diffusion occurs. The water molecules replace some gelatin molecules like the coloring, which
explains why the gummy bears begin to fade.
As the density of a object increases, the polymer structure is more tightly bounded.
Which also means if a density is low, the molecules are less tightly bound together. Polymers are
units stacked together to make long chains of molecules. The gelatin structure is made up of
these "polymers". Consequently, as the gelatin polymeric structure expands due to the diffusion
of water, the density decreases because now the water molecules are floating through the
Gummy Bear, making the total density go down.