Why do gobstoppers dissolve in water

Post a Comment. Gobstoppers when put in a shallow dish of water will dissolve. The fun part? The gorgeous wedges of colors created. They don't just blend together as the kids predicted they would. Why not? Because of all the wax in gobstopper colorants! During the hot panning process, sugar is slowly crystallized into balls that grow into jawbreakers.

Expired candy can also carry microbes that can make you sick. Aramouni, who studies food safety and food allergies in his lab, said that there have even been cases of salmonella poisoning from the consumption of old chocolate.

The candy coating is made up of coloring and sugar. The coloring and the sugar molecules both have positive and negative charges on them.

The water molecule has positive and negative charges so it can attract and dissolve the color and sugar pretty well. Skip to content Popular. February 14, Joe Ford. Table of Contents. The easiest way to mix things up a little bit would be to change the temperature of the water that is poured onto the plate of Gobstoppers. We used room temperature water the first time for this experiment and then later tried it with hot water.

Be sure to use caution if you decide to use hot water of course, but from our results, this should produce the best and most dramatic effect.

This is because the wax and colors of the candy are dissolved much faster into the hot water, compared to the cooler water. Full Disclosure: I actually have not tried it yet with cold water, but my guess would be that colder water would still work, but the reaction would probably be much slower and less dramatic.

Feel free to drop a comment if you do this with cold water and let me know how it goes! I am curious! As we saw in this experiment, the colors from the Gobstoppers were absorbed into the water, but each color did not mix with the other colors. Instead we ended up with a checkerboard looking plate of distinct boundaries between colors. The colors of the Gobstoppers do not mix in the water thanks to a thin layer of wax that washes off the Gobstopper before the color starts to wash off into the water.

This thin layer of wax is what acts like a barrier in the water and prevents the other colors from mixing together in the water. The wax on the Gobstoppers is also the reason that these hard candies change to several different colors after a few minutes in the water.

This is because each Gobstopper is made of 4 colors and 4 flavors. There is a thin layer of wax between each color and flavor on a Gobstopper. As these layers of wax and colors dissolve into the water overtime, the different colors of the Gobstoppers become visible! This is the same process that happens in our mouth when eating these…its just not quite as fun to watch in our mouths, even though it tastes better!

Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I'm Taylor - a former broadcast meteorologist, and daddy of three little girls. You'll most likely find me in the great outdoors, checking the weather or exploring the fascinating world of science. All content on this blog was created for inspiration and entertainment purposes.