Chewing gum is a mixture of natural or synthetic gums and resins, sweetened with sugar and corn syrup or any other sweetener. Also added are colors and flavors such as watermelon (everyone's favorite), grape, orange, cherry, raspberry, strawberry and even pineapple. The first chewing gum was patented in 1869. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The base material of all chewing gum is the natural gum called Chicle. It is obtained from the sapodilla tree. Chicle is a bit expensive and difficult to buy. Now they are trying different ways to make gum without using chicle. They found a substance called polyvinyl acetate, it was widely used in many products in place of chicle. When chewing gum is made, it is melted, washed and filtered while still in its raw state. Then the gum is mixed with other natural and synthetic resins, waxes and plasticizers. They are added to control stickiness and chewing characteristics. The compound is heated, mixed uniformly, cooled and made into blocks. It is now packaged and ready to sell. Chewing gum starts with a mixture of 22 to 25 percent gum base, 50 to 60 percent powdered sugar, 12 to 20 percent corn syrup, and 1 to 2 percent coloring and flavoring. . Then it is heated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit, mixed thoroughly, then cooled and placed on a belt, rolled to the correct thickness, then cut, wrapped and packaged. Bubble gum is very different from regular chewing gum because it is made with more rubber latex for greater strength. Sugar-coated chewing gum is made by swirling small cubes in copper pans with sugar syrup, powdered sugar, color and flavor. This mixture gives the colored sugar shell. By replacing regular sugar with sugar alcohols, sugar-free gums are obtained. Some examples of sugar alcohols are xylitol, mannitol and sorbitol. Popular new types of chewing gum include soft chunk bubble gum, which has a better bubble blowing consistency, and chunk gum filled with flavored liquid. Chewing gum sales totaled approximately $796 million in 1981. For my experiment, I took a piece of gum and chewed it for a minute. Then I blew five bubbles and recorded each one. After making five, I took the first two and averaged them together. I only took the first two because maybe it was my fault the bubble wasn't that big. The materials I will need are five packs of gum and a ruler to measure the size of the bubble. The first eraser I used was Fruit-a-burst because I knew it wouldn't work very well. It was only 2 inches tall. The second time I did it was Big Red too because I knew it wouldn't work very well. It was only about half an inch. I could barely get a bubble with big red. The third one I made was Bubble Yum. It went well and I blew a bubble of about three and a quarter inches. Next up was Bubblicious. I blew up a few big ones with this. Up to four and a half inches with Bubblicious. Then I used Hubba Bubba. This was close to Bubblicious. It was four inches wide. I was right when I said Bubblicious would get the biggest bubble. I thought Bubble Yum would be in second place, but that wasn't the case. In the second experiment, I take the same types of chewing gum and measure.