THE STUDY OF HOW FAST DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHOCOLATES MELT IN
HUMAN HANDS
Sydney Brown
Cary Academy
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to determine what type of chocolates melted the fastest
in human hands, and in other follow up experiments how fast different chocolates could
melt in human mouths or while exercising. Chocolate is a solid and what was
happening when chocolate melts is it turns from a solid to a liquid and how this is
happening is because the temperature is increasing in the hands making the chocolate
start to melt and change form. In this experiment chocolate was either placed in hands
or a mouth and was slowly melted. It was found that chocolate melts faster in a human
mouth then hands but the type of chocolate that melted the fastest differed with each
experiment. The results of all the experiments differed but it showed that Hershey’s
melted fastest out of Divine, Dove, and Hershey’s; and Milk chocolate melted the fastest
out of white, dark, and milk Godiva chocolate.
INTRODUCTION
Melting means many things like becoming a liquid by warmth or heat, to dissolve or
become liquid, to fade away gradually, to change or pass gradually, and to become
softened by the feeling of pity or love. All of these definitions relate to changing from a
solid to a liquid though. Melting may be caused by a different change of temperature or
pressure in the air. If temperature rises it means it is getting to the melting point. The
melting point is when a solid is turned into a liquid and when a liquid is melted it is
generally called molten.
Chocolate starts out with a couple cocoa beans that have been picked and dried on the
sun, and then are roasted in an oven. Then the shells are cut off and the inside bean is
cracked into little pieces. These little bits are made into a paste called chocolate liquor.
The cocoa butter and fat is sucked out of the paste and then what is left is dry powder.
This is what is used to make Hot Cocoa and others things like that. Chocolate liquor is
not at all smooth or creamy but adding other ingredients like vanilla, milk, sugar, and
cocoa butter. Then mix this substance through a chocolate machine and keep adding
things, for example cocoa and soy lechitin. If a company conches or stirs chocolate for
only a couple hours than it is cheaper chocolate by if it is conched for about six hours or
more it is more expensive and richer. When conched longer it gives the chocolate
texture; this requires stirring the chocolate, letting it cool, then reheating and repeating
this process many more time. Doing this makes chocolate look good and taste better.
Now it’s good to eat!
Figure 1: Homemade diagram that show the steps on how chocolate is made.
Solid, liquid, and gas are the three classical states of matter. A liquid flows to take the
shape of its container while solids do not. A liquid is a fluid and although a liquid fills a
container it doesn’t fill every single space like a gas does. In solids atoms are tightly
bound together but in a liquid the atoms are free to move around more. The density of a
solid and liquid are almost the same but a liquid is a little less dense. Stretching or
squeezing a solid can change its volume or when a solid is heated it will turn into a
liquid and even gas’s when reach higher temperatures. According to Greek all liquids
contain large amounts of water. Liquid particles attract to each other and cannot be
stretched or squeezed easily to make smaller or large objects. When liquids are heated
or the spacing between the particles changes it makes the object expand. Some liquids
are thicker than other and are slower moving. Honey is a good example because it is a
thick liquid compared to water. When talking about changes of state it can be altered in
many various ways. Heating a solid to the melting point will change its state and heating
a liquid to the boiling point will make the liquid change to a gas. Pressure also affects
the state of matter, for example when the air pressure is low the boiling point is lowered.
An increase of pressure will also lower the melting point of a solid.
Figure 2: In this diagram it shows a solid changing to a liquid.
Then a liquid changing into a gas. The temperature goes up which
increases how much energy there is. In the solid picture it shows
that solid are packed tightly together. In liquids atoms move
more freely but in gases atoms move even more freely.
Sweat glands produce sweat when the human body becomes hot. Sweat is let out of
pores from the skin on the human body. Sweating is basically the body’s cooling
system. There are many definitions for sweat; to perspire, to send out moisture, to
gather moisture from the surrounding air, to ooze or be exuded, to send out drops or
small particles, to send forth or get rid of like perspiration, and to wet with perspiration.
Temperature can be measured in Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin. In Fahrenheit 32˚ is
where water freezes and 212˚ is when water boils. The interval between freezing and
boiling is divided into 180 equal intervals which is ˚F. In the Celsius scale 0˚ is where
water freezes and 100˚ is where it boils. The difference between the boiling and freezing
point here is that it is divided into 1- equal parts which is called ˚C. The Kelvin scale is
often used in physical science. Units of the Kelvin scale are the same size as the
Celsius scale but are called Kelvins (K). If 273 degrees is added to any number on the
Kelvin scale it is automatically changes to the Celsius scale, which means the freezing
point for the Kelvin scale would be 273 and the boiling point would be 373 K.
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the individual particles of an
object. When particles move faster the temperature will rise, if particles are moving
slower, the particles will do the complete opposite and cool down. A scale is needed to
measure the temperature accurately. Thermal energy or sometimes called internal
energy is the total energy of particles in a substance. Even when two examples of
matter are the same temperature it doesn’t mean it always has the same total energy.
The more particles a substance has at a given temperature, the more thermal energy it
has. Thermal energy also depends on the number of particles in a substance and how
the energy is arranged.
Kelly Bright, at Cary Academy, did an experiment on how much light could travel though
M&M’s and Skittles before melted and after melted. In her experiment she used a light
probe to find out how much light could travel though the M&M’s and Skittles. Then she
melted the candies in different liquids and measured how much light went through the
melted candy.
MATERIALS AND METHOD
Beaker, Triple Beam Balance, Cups, Water, Dove Chocolate, Divine Chocolate,
Hershey’s Chocolate, Godiva Chocolate; Milk, White, and Dark, Temperature Probe,
Timer, Hand and Mouth, and a computer were used in this experiment.
The first experiment in this project was to test which brand of chocolate; Dove, Divine,
Hershey’s, melted the fastest in human hands. A temperature probe was used to
measure the temperature of the hands and then the chocolate was placed inside. To
make sure that all the chocolates were the same weight a triple beam balance was
used. When the chocolate was placed in the hands the timer was started. To get faster
results, chocolate was placed in both hands. After this process, the chocolate was in the
hands and was starting to melt. After the chocolate had totally changed from a solid to a
liquid the timer was stopped and the results were recorded. Since the chocolate took so
long to melt, instead of collecting data three times and getting an estimate it was only
collected twice.
The same process was done in the second experiment, but instead Godiva chocolate
was used. The purpose was to see which type of chocolate; milk chocolate, white
chocolate, or dark chocolate, could melt the fastest in human hands. The chocolate was
placed in the hands and the timer was started. Soon after, the chocolate was melted
and the timer was stopped. The data was then recorded and the process was done one
more time.
The next experiment was about the same as the first two. This time the chocolate;
Divine, Dove, and Hershey’s, was being melted in a mouth. The chocolate square was
measured once more and placed in the mouth and the timer was started. After the
chocolate had completely melted in the mouth, the timer was stopped and the results
were recorded. This was done two times with each type of chocolate.
The same thing was done in this as the third experiment, except Godiva chocolate was
used; Milk, Dark, and White chocolate. The chocolate was again measured and placed
in the mouth. The timer was started and the chocolate started melting. After the
chocolate had fully melted the timer was stopped and the results were recorded. This
was done two more times.
This experiment was melting Divine, Dove, and Hershey’s chocolate in human hands
but while the human was exercising. The chocolate was measured and placed in the
hands, the timer was started, and the human started exercising. Jumping jacks, running
in place, and running outside was done to melt the chocolate. When the chocolate was
melted in the hands the timer was stopped and the results were recorded. This was
done twice.
The final experiment was the same as the last but the chocolate was Godiva milk, dark,
and white chocolate. The chocolate was again measured and placed in the hands. The
timer was started and the human started exercising. Running inside and outside and
jumping jacks were done. When the chocolate was melted the timer was stopped and
the results were recorded. This was done twice to get an average.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
It was found, in this experiment, that there were many different results for how fast
different types of chocolates melted in human hands and mouths. The temperature of
the area that the experiment took place in or what was eaten before the experiment
easily changes the results.
In the first experiment of melting Divine, Dove, and Hershey’s chocolate in hands
Divine ended up melting the fastest. It took Divine about 8 min. and 14 sec. to melt in
the hands. Divine might have melted the fastest because of the temperature of the
How long it took to melt (min)
hands or because of the texture and how rich the chocolate is.
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Divine
Hershey's
Dove
Type of chocolate
Figure 3: This graph shows how fast different type’s chocolates melted in human hands.
In the second experiment of melting White, Dark, and Milk chocolate in human hands
Milk chocolate melted the fastest, but only by a second or two. Milk chocolate might
melt faster because of the way it is made or the ingredients added to it. The results for
How long it took to melt (min)
Milk and White chocolate were very close though.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
White Chocolate
Milk Chocolate
Dark Chocolate
Type of chocolate
Figure 4: This graph shows how fast different types of Godiva chocolate mlets in human hands.
In the third experiment the question was how fast Divine, Dove, or Hershey’s could melt
in a human mouth and in the end the results show that Hershey’s could melt in less than
3 min. The results could have been different because Dove and Divine chocolate were
in solid squares when the Hershey’s chocolate was split into two rectangles. The
ingredients added to the chocolate or how long the chocolate was turned could change
how fast it can melt.
How long it took to melt (min)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Divine
Dove
Hershey's
Type of chocolate
Figure 5: This graph shows how fast different types of chocolates melted in a human mouth.
In the fourth experiment the question was to see which type of Godivia; milk, white, and
dark chocolate melts the fastest in a mouth. The results show that milk chocolate melts
the fastest melting just 7 sec. faster than milk chocolate. Again, milk chocolate can be
How long it took to melt (min)
made differently or maybe it wasn’t turned as much to make it not as good quality.
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Milk chocolate
White chocolate
Dark chocolate
Type of chocolate
Figure 6: This graph shows how fast different types of Godiva chocolate melts in a human mouth.
Then on the fifth experiment the experiment was to see which type of chocolate; Dove,
Divine, Hershey’s melted the fastest in the human hands while exercising. In this
experiment is showed that Hershey melted fastest in about 4 min. while Divine took 5
min. and 21 sec. and Dove took more like 11 min. and 24 sec. Again, Hershey’s could
be made differently and it has a different shape than the other two chocolates.
How long it took to melt (min)
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Dove
Divine
Hershey's
Type of chocolate
Figure 7: This graph shows how fast Divine, Dove, and Hershey's chocolate melted in human hands
while exercising.
The final experiment was to see which kind of Godiva chocolate melted the fastest in
human hands while exercising; milk, dark, and white again. In this one dark chocolate
surprisingly melted the fastest in 12 min. and 20 sec. Dark chocolate might have melted
How long it took to melt (min)
the fastest because of the texture maybe even if the human exercised outside or inside.
13.4
13.2
13
12.8
12.6
12.4
12.2
12
11.8
11.6
White chocolate
Milk chocolate
Dark chocolate
Type of Chocolate
Figure 8: This graph shows how fast different types of Godiva chocolate; milk, white, and dark, melted
in human hands while exercising.
CONCLUSION
In all of the experiments of melting Dove, Hershey’s, and Divine chocolate in human
hands and mouths the conclusion would be that Hershey’s melts the fastest overall.
With the other experiments of melting Milk, White, and Dark Godiva chocolate in human
hands and mouths the conclusion would be that milk melts the fastest overall. This data
might be important to the world because the longer the chocolate takes to melt most
likely means the better quality. The hypotheses to the experiments were not all correct
but some were, it is hard to predict which chocolate will melt the fastest. Some follow up
experiments would be how fast one type of chocolates can melt after being freezed or
heated or just left out for days. The chocolate could be melted in human hands or in a
human mouth.
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