Candy Experiments

Need something to do with your leftover Halloween candy besides gaining weight? So did we... that's why I Googled "candy experiments," only to discover a website called, "www.candyexperiments.com" SO cool! We did 6 simple experiments altogether. I'll share the gist of what we did here, but you can go to their site for in-depth directions. (They even have printable experiments!)

The first experiment was the floating m and floating s experiment. Did you know that if you put Skittles or M&M's in water, the letters will eventually float to the top? This was actually my favorite experiment -- I think it's amazing that the delicate little letters would stay in tact and float to the top!

The second experiment was the girls' favorite -- testing for acid in candy. You drop the candy in water and add a spoonful of baking soda. If it bubbles, it is acidic. There were several different options to try, which not only kept them entertained, but allowed us to get rid of that much more candy! :)

Of course, some of it got in their mouths. :)

The color separation was Daniel's favorite experiment. You use a brown M&M, a coffee filter, and some water. After just 5 minutes, the colors separate -- it is quite cool!

You can probably tell what we did here; yes, we microwaved some candy and let it cool. If it had white waxy spots, that meant it contained oil. (Yuck!)



This was really fun; the girls would hypothesize whether a certain candy would float or sink, and then we would drop it in water. The girls then had to come up with a theory as to which candies were likely to sink, and hich would float. They were very wise to think big heavy ones would sink, but some "larger" candies floated... how?


Thats when my adorable husband decided to pull out a straw and a balloon and demonstate how our lungs are filled with air, and how we can float when we are filled with air, even though we are big and heavy. The floaties were things like 3 Musketeers, Whoppers, a random sour gumball, and a marshmallow. The rest sank.

The last "test" was kind of silly. You just take any chewy candy and wet it to se how sticky it becomes. They suggested molding it into a car, so that's what Allison did...

... and stuck it to her head!