Gummy Bear Lab Report

The purpose of this experiment was to observe the relationship between different solutions and their effect on the mass and length of a gummy bear. Gummy bears with the same relative size and colour were placed in 50 mL beakers with the same amount of their designated liquid. The different solutions studied were water, oil, vinegar, a simple sugar solution, and rubbing alcohol. In the end, based on the observations made, the majority of the hypotheses created were not proven to be correct.

When the gummy bear was placed in roughly 40 mL of water for an estimated three days, it dissolved. The results did not support the hypothesis written, as due to the gummy bear dissolving before measurements took place, it could not be concluded for certain

These changes from the initial measurements are quite minuscule and don’t really affect the gummy bear substantially. The results did not support the hypothesis that was created, as the gummy bear’s measurements, while small, did change. This is because, while the oil seemed to have a higher viscosity which in theory prevented the solution to be absorbed by the gummy bear, perhaps due to a rising temperature provided by the sunlight or inaccurate measurements after the experiment was completed, the results went against the hypothesis. Either way, the thickness of the oil prevented major alterations to the length and mass.

When the gummy bear was placed in roughly 40 mL of vinegar for an estimated three days, it completely dissolved. The results did support this specific hypothesis, as predicted, the gummy bear would be negatively affected by the acid levels in the vinegar, breaking down the gelatin candy. Similar to the results and reasoning behind the water-submerged gummy bear, as the gummy bear was left for multiple days unsupervised there is no way to be sure how it got to the point of being dissolved. However, it likely grew in mass and length over the hours, before absorbing so much vinegar that it dissolved

The mass and length of gummy bears either increase or decrease in specific solutions. Depending on the acidity, sugar-to-water ratio, viscosity, and other factors, the gummy bear was more prone to expand or shrink. For example, the gummy bear submerged in the sugar solution increased in mass and length due to the ratio of sugar in the solution while the concentration of rubbing alcohol caused the gummy bear to shrink and shrivel up. Sources of error were found in this experiment regarding the measuring tactics used. When attempting to measure the mass and the length of the sugar solution gummy bear, it was cut in half due to its jelly-like texture with the forceps and resulting in an immeasurable length and mass. The final mass could be far off due to the water and chunks of expanded gummy bears found in the beaker, leading to an inaccurate result. As well, for the sugar solution, the result could have been different if a more accurate measurement of the sugar needed was made. For the specific result, the hypothesis stated, the sugar solution needed to have an equal amount of sugar content to the gummy bear which did not occur. Ensuring that the beaker contained 10 grams of sugar was off, due to prerequisite calculations that lead to too much liquid in the beaker that needed to be removed. To be correct, the hypotheses that were wrong could