ALL chewing gums have two major components - gum base and sweeteners.

• Gum base is non-nutritive, non-digestible, and NOT soluble in water. Gum base provides the gum's textural and masticatory (chewing) properties.

  The gum base used in bubble gum contains "elastomers" (high molecular weight polymers), which provide the gum's elastic properties.

  Almost all of today's chewing gums use synthetic polymers instead of natural waxes.
   

   
• Sweeteners provide the flavoring for chewing gum.

  Whether natural sugars or "sugar-free", these flavorings are digestible AND water-soluble.

ONLY these materials are available for this lab:

• one piece of Double Bubble (per student)
   
• the lab balance.

 

HINTS:

♠ Use ALL the lab group's available data for your experimental results!   ♠ There is a MAJOR source of experimental error that must be avoided!