Saturday Morning Science Experiment: The Gummi Bear Gets It

Grab your favorite sugary cereal and pull up a seat. It's time for Saturday Morning Science Experiment! This week, we're finding out what happens to a gummi bear (i.e., sucrose) when it's dropped into molten potassium chlorate.

Got a video you want to see on Saturday Morning Science Experiment? Drop me an email, I'm taking suggestions.

Gummi bear thumbnail photo courtesy Flickr user Furryscaly, via CC.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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rockfreakinsolid

Holy ursine jell-o grenade, Batman!

Not sure if I was seeing that correctly, but… was that reaction actually giving off *light*?? Way, cool!!
sk8rboi69

They hibernate in your colon!
Anonymous

Hmmm. . .isn’t KCl what most states use for lethal injections? Course anyone who could get potassium chlorate would probably know that already.
- Anonymous
  
  KCl is Potassium Chloride
  
  KClO3 is Potassium Chlorate
Bluecobra

Part of me wants to buy one of these giant 5 pound gummy bears from here (http://www.vat19.com/dvds/worlds-largest-gummy-bear.cfm) and dump it in a pool of molten potassium chlorate and see what happens.
Anonymous

Wife: The gummy bear will get the same reaction in your tummy, just less exotermic.
Legless_Marine

Potassium Chlorate?

Can you even obtain that anymore without getting on a watch list?
bondjamesbond

now, of course, we will no longer be allowed to take gummi bears on airplanes…
slideguy

You fiends!! You… You… You… DICK CHENEYS!!!
jewelley

how many gummis will fit in a quart-size ziplock…
noodlez

That was one of my dad’s, high school chemistry teacher, favorite experiments to perform for his chemistry classes.
Very cool!
lumpi

Something fun I actually did with gummi bears as a kid: Drop one in a big glass of water. Leave it in there for a day or so. It will grow and grow until it fills the whole glass!
holtt

Lumpi, that’s how they make Aerojel :)
Sekino

LOL that was hilarious! I expected it would melt and turn weird colours or something. What a reaction! :D
- Chris the Tiki guy
  
  Sekino, if your “What a reaction” was a nod to Don Showalter in the World of Chemistry videos, you win my person of the week award. You don’t really get anything for the award, but I will think highly of you until distracted by something shiny…
Mitch

So don’t let your kids eat Gummi Bears when they’re playing with molten potassium perchlorate.
Gilbert Wham

Foolish loosely science-based Sky show Brainiac had an excellent little section in this vein, called ‘Will it Fizz, or will it Bang?’
Anonymous

You can try that science mumbo jumbo with the other peons, but I know that reaction is a result of Satan being released from his natural sucrosey habitat.
Anonymous

awwwwww, poor gummi bear! Where are animal rights activists when you need them? Isn’t this a veiled suggestion toward animal cruelty? (Dear Lord, please know I’m kidding; never know with these teabagging wackos on the loose packing heat & dreaming of doing Beck & Limbaugh in a threesome)
Anonymous

What a horrible deathshow!
aagblog

That gummy bear was screaming!
CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

As for suggestion, do they need to be Saturday Morning Chemistry Experiments, or can they be Saturday Morning Physics Experiments?
- VagabondAstronomer
  
  I’m waiting for Saturday Morning Genetics Experiments…
Dewi Morgan

Bluecobra: just don’t drop it in the sea…
KurtMac

Not to supersede whatever videos may appear in future episodes of SMSE, but if you like science, physics and chemistry I suggest you check out the following three YouTube channels that come from the University of Nottingham:

http://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos
http://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols
http://www.youtube.com/user/nottinghamscience

Absolutely my favorite YouTube channels out there which are criminally underwatched. PeriodicVideos is exactly that, each video about a different element on the Periodic Table and experiments that explain each one. SixtySymbols is all about explaining hard-to-grasp physics and astronomy terms and theories. NottinghamScience is a behind-the-scenes look at Nottingham University’s science departments.
- Mabeuf
  
  Thank you for the links, they’re fantastic! I’ve never learned so much about candles…
Snig

Oh the ursinity!
Maggie Koerth-Baker

Saturday morning science experiments can be from any of the sciences. :)
Snig

The movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” has an excellent malign gummi bear death montage.
Anonymous

Intense.

“The reaction is said to be product-favored.” Arnold, eat your heart out.
danlalan

I’m thinking any saturday morning biology experiments that would pass the yawn test would be unethical, illegal, or both. I could be wrong, tho…
- Felton
  
  Which brings up the question of whether it’s ethical to use gummi bears in such experiments. Stop the sucrose slaughter!
  - danlalan
    
    in related news:
    
    http://illusion.scene360.com/wp-content/themes/sahara-10/submissions/jason_freeny_02.jpg
    - morcheeba
      
      I embiggened it for you:
      http://chopsueyblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/anatomie_gummi_bar_by_freeny.png
Talia

I wonder how a giant gummi bear that’d been soaking in water for a day would taste.

I think that’s an experiment I’ll be skipping. Although I dare someone to do it and post video. :P
jjasper

Gummi Bears,
Combusting here and there and everywhere,
Molten potassium chlorate that’s beyond compare,
We are the Gummi Bears!
- Felton
  
  jjasper: Hehehehe!
Felton

Of course, I don’t mind experimentation on gummi worms. They’re not mammals.
CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

The bright blue flame indicates this was a particularly sweet donut.
xian

the soundâ€¦ I will never forget that horrific sound…
Apreche

Looks like there a lot of energy release in that reaction there. We should make a gummi-bear powered car.
Anonymous

More Gummy Bear desctruction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL5T_eutLic
Anonymous

My 10-year-old started with COOOOOOL! and ended up with “they’re murdering gummy bears”….which transitioned into — whoa, look at the chunks flying out of the test tube!

I’m so proud of my little geek.

Bring on more videos!
t3hmadhatter

I never knew those little bears could scream so loud… why don’t they do that when being eaten?
- Cowicide
  
  because they like to be eaten
mypalmike

@Legless_Marine:

You can’t even mention potassium chlorate on a blog without getting on a watch list.
devophill

I… (wait, “don’t cuss”? That’s new. Crap.) …umm, fscking hate Eric Fscking Baum.
mdh

it’s like life sped up.
Anonymous

Soak gummy bears in vodka. For a week (it takes a whole week, and you must cover & refrigerate & stir on occasion).
They double in size. And wonderfulness.
- Talia
  
  Alcoholic gummi bears. Oh my, WANT.