Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

In the Making Marshmallows: what's the best ratio of sugar to corn syrup? experiment, my melting tests consistantly had recipe 3 (higher concentration) melting first. I thought it would take longer to melt since it has the higher concentration and a higher temperature would be needed. I'm having trouble understanding why recipe 3 melted first.

Thanks!

Hello Macy03,

I reviewed the procedures for the “Making Marshmallows” experiment. I think that the expected result for the “Making Marshmallows” experiment is that the melting time is shortest for recipe 1, followed by recipe 2, and longest for recipe 3. That is, higher sugar concentration in the recipe results in longer melting time.

Was your melting time for recipe 1 shorter than the time for recipe 2? If so, you found the expected results for two of the recipes. Possibly there was something wrong with the preparation of recipe 3.

Sometimes the best thing to do when you get an unexpected result is to carefully repeat the experiment. This is quite common in science! If you repeat the experiment and get the expected result, then you know something was off in the first experiment. On the other hand, if you get the unexpected result a second time, you may have discovered something new.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions

A. Norman

Thanks for your answer. My mom and I were thinking that maybe we weren't getting accurate temps with our thermometer because the solution was so shallow in our saucepan. Since the syrup mix wasn't very deep we had to hold the thermometer very close to the bottom of the pan.We used the smallest pan that we had. Do you think that could have caused my results to be messed up

Hi Macy03,

I think it is possible that inaccurate cooking temperature influenced your results. From your description it seems to me that your thermometer reading may have been higher than the actual cooking temperature. If so, this would have resulted in less evaporation of water and lower sugar concentration in your cooked solution.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions

A. Norman