The Study of Dissolving Skittles
Jack Rooney
Cary Academy
ABSTRACT
The purpose for these experiments was to see which methods work the best for
dissolving Skittles. A hydrophilic substance is a substance that can dissolve in water but
a hydrophobic substance is a substance that cannot dissolve in water. For the first
experiment the Skittles were weighed before and after they were put in different liquids
to see how much weight they lost when they were in the liquid for one minute. The
water was the liquid that best dissolves the Skittles, which is a surprise because there
have been experiments like this before and the results were a lot different. The reason
why the water was more effective is because it is not an acid, it doesn’t have sugar and
it doesn’t have carbonation.
INTRODUCTION
Skittles were first introduced to the USA in 1974. Skittles are made by combining sugar,
fruit juice, artificial and natural flavors, and oil. They are then put into molds to dry.
When they are dry, they take them out from the molds and then roll them around in
some sugar and dye which is their coating. The dyes are the color on the outside of the
Skittle. Only one color of Skittle can be made in a single batch because if there was all
different colors the Skittles would be a weird shade of gray and the Skittles would not
taste right. The process in which the Skittles are rolled around in coating is called the
“panning”. Once they are done with the panning process they are left out to dry for just a
few minutes. Then the Skittles get the “S” on them for a signature. After that process the
Skittles are mixed up into bags with all of the other different flavored Skittles and sealed
up. These bags are sent to all of the stores.
Skittles are made of hydrophilic substances that have a strong affinity for water. That
means they will dissolve in water. Hydrophobic substances do not have a strong affinity
for water. That means they will not dissolve in water. Skittles will dissolve in liquids such
as soda, water, vinegar and Gatorade. Another example of hydrophilic substances is
sugar cubes. They will dissolve in many liquids. An example of a hydrophobic product is
a straw. It doesn’t dissolve in water or any liquids. Another example is plastic objects.
They will not dissolve in any liquid. The suffix “phobic” means fear and the prefix “hydro”
means water. So if the prefix “hydro” and the suffix “phobic” are put together it means
“fear of water.” The suffix “philic” means attracted to and the prefix “hydro” means water.
If the prefix “hydro” and the suffix “philic” is put together those two together they mean
“attracted to water.”
There are many definitions of dissolving. Some are: 1) to cause to pass into solution; 2)
to cause to fade away; 3) to become weaker; and 4) to come to an end and to cause to
vanish. When something dissolves it breaks down into little tiny molecules. The
molecules are still there, they are just unable to be seen. Dissolving is when a
dissolvable substance (a solute) is combined with a solvent and a physical change
happens to the solute. The particles in the solute break up into tiny pieces that the
human eye cannot see. The tiny pieces are still there even though it is impossible to see
them. To dissolve something it is just needed a solute and a solvent. Melting is not the
same thing as dissolving. Melting is a physical process that makes a solid a liquid by
using heat to melt the solid to a liquid. The internal energy of a substance is increased
by the heat or pressure that was applied to it and then the temperature goes up to
melting point. The process of dissolving is much different than the process of melting.
The process of dissolving is the solute is breaking up into tiny pieces that cannot be
seen.
Figure 1- This diagram is showing how sugar dissolves in water.
There are two other ISP experiments that have been done like mine before. The first
ISP was the dissolving of candy shells in general. The purpose of the experiment was to
see how different types of candy shells dissolve. In the experiments Skittles and M&Ms
were put in liquids, and put in a person’s mouth and hand to see which one dissolved
the most. In this study Skittles dissolve more than M&M’s, and the mouth dissolves
more than the hand does. The second ISP studied the dissolving of Skittles. The
purpose of the experiment was to see what liquid dissolves Skittles the most. In these
experiments the Skittles were cut up, they were put in different colored water, they were
put in for different amounts of time, they were put in different amount of liquids, and the
Skittle’s color was changed to see how it affected the dissolving. This study found that
the size, type of liquid, and amount of liquid do have an effect on the dissolving but the
color of the Skittle does not have a big impact on the dissolving.
METHODS AND MATERIALS
Skittles, triple beam balance (a weighing device), water, sprite, vinegar, Gatorade,
Perrier, paper towels, a freezer, small beakers and a timer were used in these
experiments.
For the first experiment the orange Skittles were weighed on a triple beam balance then
three orange Skittles were put in a beaker with 100ml of either sprite, water, Gatorade,
Perrier or vinegar. The Skittles were in a beaker with the liquid for 1 min. After the
Skittles were in the beaker for a minute they were taken out to dry. Then they were
weighed on a triple beam balance to see how much weight they lost. These steps were
repeated three times for each liquid.
For the second experiment the color of the Skittles were varied but the liquid was
always water. They still were weighed on a triple beam balance and went into the
beaker as groups of three and they were in the beaker for 1 min. The liquid was still in a
beaker filled up to the 100ml line. Different color Skittles were put in to see which color
dissolved the most. These steps were repeated three times for each set of different
colored Skittles.
For the third experiment the Skittles were put into the freezer for different amounts of
time to see how much they dissolved in water in 1 min. The liquid was always water, the
Skittles were still in the beaker for 1 minute and the water was still filled up to 100ml in
the beaker. The Skittle’s color was purple this time because that was the color that
dissolved the best in water. The Skittles were put in the freezer for 5, 10, 15, 20, 720
min before they were weighed and put in water and be weighed again. This process
was repeated three times each for each different time they went into the freezer.
RESULTS AND DISSCUSION
0.6
How much weight lossed (g)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Vinegar
Sprite
Gatorade
Perrier
Water
Liquid Skittles dissolved in.
Figure 2- This graph shows what liquid dissolves Skittles the most in one min.
This data is actually surprising because other people have done this experiment before
and they found that the vinegar dissolves Skittles more than water. In this experiment
the water did dissolve the Skittles more than vinegar. The water dissolved about 0.5 g.
of Skittle and the vinegar 0.14 g. For the vinegar the coloring would just stay at the
bottom like sand. That means that the vinegar would just break apart and not dissolve
the Skittles. Gatorade did the same thing as the vinegar, but it dissolved more than the
vinegar. The dye on the Skittles floated to the bottom and settled without dissolving. The
two carbonated liquids, Sprite and Perrier, did dissolve the skittles just not as much as
the water. The Sprite and Perrier dissolved 0.4 g. of Skittle, compared to 0.5 g. for
water. The bubbles in the carbonation went around the Skittles and carried some of the
dye to the top and then dropped it, so it mixed in with the liquid.
Some of the reasons why the water dissolves the Skittles the best is that vinegar is an
acid and that could be why the vinegar doesn’t dissolve much of the Skittle. The Sprite
and Gatorade both have sugar in the liquid so that could also be why the Skittles are not
being dissolved as much. The Sprite and Perrier both have carbonation in them so that
could also be causing the Skittles not to dissolve as much as the water.
0.5
0.45
0.4
Weight loss (g)
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Red
Yellow
Purple
Orange
Green
Color of Skittle
Figure 3- This graph shows what color dissolves the most in water.
The purple color Skittle dissolved the most in water (0.47 g.) but the orange color Skittle
(0.37 g.) is not far behind the purple colored Skittle. The orange colored Skittle would
also give off a lot of dye but the color was kind of light so it did not dissolve as much as
the purple colored Skittle. The other colored Skittles would not really give off a lot of dye
into the water. The yellow colored Skittle dissolved the least in water. The weight the
yellow colored Skittle dissolved was 0.14 g. The facts are actually quite surprising
because the yellow colored Skittle is a light color and the purple colored skittle is very
dark. It appears that darker colored Skittles dissolve more than lighter colored Skittles.
There are a couple of reasons why the data would be like this. The first might be
because the purple and orange has more sugar in the Skittle than the other colors do.
Or another reason why is because there is more dye on the Skittle because in order to
make the color they have to mix different colors together. Having more dye might mean
it breaks apart faster.
0.6
weight loss (g)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0
0.08
0.17
0.25
0.33
12
Time in Freezer (hr)
Figure 4- This graph shows how much the purple colored Skittles dissolved after
a certain amount in the Freezer.
The Skittles dissolve 0.5 g. when they are in the freezer for 15 min. This is the most the
Skittles will dissolve when they are in the freezer. The Skittles dissolve the same when
the Skittles are in the freezer for 20 min. and 0 min. (0.47 g) The Skittles dissolve the
least when the Skittles are in the freezer for five min. (0.3 g) When the Skittles are in the
freezer for ten minutes the Skittles lose 0.46 g. It is not clear why the graph says the
Skittles dissolve the most after being in the freezer for fifteen min. But one possible
reason it could be like this is after fifteen min. the Skittles are frozen and the Skittles are
unfreezing in the water instead of dissolving.
CONCLUSION
The reason why the water was more effective is because it is not an acid, it doesn’t
have sugar and it doesn’t have carbonation. The hypothesis was not correct because it
was thought that the vinegar would dissolve the Skittles the most and the water the
least but the result was the opposite of my hypothesis. These results are important
because it is cool to know what dissolves Skittles the best and what methods are the
best to use. Some good future experiments are to see which liquid temperature would
dissolve Skittles the most or dissolve the Skittles for longer than one min. to see if the
dissolving slows down or speeds up.
CITATIONS
History of Skittles Candy Posted By : Tauqeer Hassan." Chocolates and Candies. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 20 Feb.
“Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic”. “ The New American Dictionary”, Houghton Miffiln
Company, 1982. Print.
Kelly, “Bright.THE STUDY OF DISSOLVING CANDY SHELLS”. Cary Academy. Feb.
21. Print.
Lewis Peter, Ryles Briony, Facts at your Finger Tips Introducing Atoms, Molecules, and
States of Matter. Brown Bear Books, 2010 Print.
“Melting” Wikipedia. Web. Feb. 20 2014
Thompson Thomas E. “Lipid” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2014