For a vitally important school assignment, I have to investigate "Chewing Gum" from a physics perspective.

 

Can anyone please suggest any experiments that I coud carry out on chewing gum? I've thought about investigating physical properties, but since they are technically a chemistry topic, i am hesitant to do this.

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

you could try to find the calorific value of one gram. or examine its elastic modulus over different temperatures.

does it conduct electricity and if it doesn`t at what voltage will it break down as an insulator.

stuff like that

Thanks for your reply. These experiments sound really interesting. Could you direct me to a site or a book which contains procedures on how to conduct these experiments?

Physics isn`t really my area of Science, but I`m sure some of the others will help you when they arrive, for now, try Googling for things like "elastic modulus" or "Breakdown voltage" and see how it`s worked out for other materials, then addapt your experiments accordingly

You could about finding the force coefficient, elastic limit, potential energy stored when stretched.......the list goes on. Consider the topic of Materials and Structures.

there are LOTS of modulouses that you could find experimentally:

 

youngs

bulk

shear

poisson.

 

Also you could always have a look at the termal properties of it, it's probabably experimentally possible to find some of the thermodynamic parameters for it.

I have to investigate "Chewing Gum" from a physics perspective

Well it's quite a large topic.

 

Look at chemical properties (reactivity)

 

Thermal properties (heat it up)

 

Elastic effect, atomic bonding

 

Energy stored when stretched (potential energy)

 

What could be very complex is mathematics and physics involved in bubles... limits until the atomic bonds break, thickness, pressure etc.

 

How sticky it is (that was an important part in making it, when it was first made round bout 1930 the difference between it and other chewing gums was that this was less sticky and more stretchy)

 

How does the atomic structure change as it is chewed? (shape changes, colour can fade slightly, flavour lost)

Thanks for your reply. These experiments sound really interesting. Could you direct me to a site or a book which contains procedures on how to conduct these experiments?

 

I honestly meen no disrespect but to me at least it seams like in order for a project in school to be your own you would have to come up with the lab procedure etc yourself, asking for advice on problem statement but simply copying someones entire lab is another... dont meen to preach but it wouldnt take long ot create your own lab procedure for any of hte aforementioned ideas.