Questions on Science Fair Project: Chocolate

[melliott]

My group partner and I are working on a science fair experiment.
Here is my question: Does putting additives in chocolate change it's structural build?
And here is my partner's question: What is the effect of freezing on chocolate?
A summary of my project is that I add marshmallows, raisins and candy coated chocolate to thin chocolate bars.
I will do various tests on the bars such as a break test in which a spring scale is at the end of the chocolate bar and the other end is secured on a table.
A pressure test in which a nail is dropped onto the bar and the length of how much it goes in is measured.
The last test is a melting test, in which the bar is placed in a pan on a stove, set to medium heat, and a stopwatch is used to measure the time it takes to melt.
The same goes for my partner except she is freezing the bars for 24 and 72 hours periods with no additives in hers.
She is dong the same tests.
Here are our questions:

1.What are all the ingredients in chocolate?

2. When freezing chocolate do any chemical or physical changes occur?

3. What machines are used to create chocolate?

4. How is chocolate used other than for eating?

5. What are the chemicals in chocolate?

6. How long does the process of making a chocolate bar take?

7. How long does it take for a cacao tree to grow it's first cacao pod?

8.If additives are put in chocolate do any chemical or physical changes occur?

p.s. This is for interviewing only, if you are interested in being interviewed please leave your name, occupation, and contact number/email. Thank you!

[melliott]

If you reply to all the questions please post your name, title and organization/buisness

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

Sorry no one answered your post sooner.

You may find these sites to be helpful:

http://www.chocolatenecessities.com/cho ... essing.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/chocolate/making.html

http://www.allchocolate.com/understandi ... ctory.aspx

Hope this answers many of your questions.

Best regards,

Barrett L. Tomlinson
Retired chemist

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

I forgot to mention these project ideas:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p038.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p076.shtml

Best regards,

Barrett L. Tomlinson

[melliott]

Sorry but we need someone to answer our particular questions.

[deleted-71827]

Hi!
The above links by Barrett are great resources and were meant to help you answer those specific questions. If you still need help, feel free to post again!

[deleted-42343]

The above experts have given lots of great advice. I just wanted to reiterate that it is not an Expert's job to answer background research questions. We can help you find the resources to answer the question, and if you don't understand something while doing the research, we'll help you out, but it is your job to do some background research and try to find the answers yourself .

As for the interview questions, post them in this forum, as Experts cannot contact people using outside means (email, phone, etc.). Here are some more rules about interviews: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4489

I highly suggest you make the questions relatively general (i.e. instead of asking specific questions about chocolate, ask about working in chemistry or physics). Very few of our Experts (if any) actually do work with chocolate. Many students have been posting interviews and have such specific questions that our Experts can't answer them since they don't work on that specific topic. If your teacher has given you these questions, explain that they need to be more general.The interview questions need to something like asking the Expert about working in a certain field (physics, chemistry, etc.), or how the Expert became interested in science, etc.

Good luck with your project. It sounds really cool!

[melliott]

Okay I'll try posting in the forum