Published on Sep 28, 2024
The objective: The objective of my project was to see chewing different kinds of gum will increase the temperature regardless of flavor.
15 volunteers, 15 oral thermometer, 10 pieces of mint-flavored gum, 10 pieces of cinnamon-flavored gum, and metronome. Volunteers keep still for five minutes. Take temperature. Split volunteers into three groups. Group 1 gets mint gum, group 2 gets cinnamon gum, and group 3 gets nothing. Everyone chews for two minutes. Take temperature.
The change in temperature was obtained. Mint group, cinnamon group and no gum group had 0.32, 0.55, and 0.27 degree Fahrenheit, respectively. All groups had a rise in temperature. Cinnamon group had the highest change in temperature. Cinnamon group's observation corresponded with their results. The mint group thought that their temperature would decrease but it actually increased. No gum group thought that the temperature would not change but it did.
I found out from my background research that chewing gum causes the temperature of a person's mouth to rise due to increase in blood flow to the tongue, jaw, and cheek muscles. I also found out that it is just the sensation of being hot or cool and not the temperature of the mouth.
I hypothesized that chewing mint gum, cinnamon gum, and no gum will raise the temperature of the mouth regardless of flavor.
I conducted the experiment (see methods/material) and got the result (see result). My hypothesis was partially supported because all three groups had some rise in temperature.
I did not expect the cinnamon gum group to have most change in temperature. Therefore, I am uncertain as to whether or not the temperature change was due to flavor. Maybe some of the errors I made in the experiment caused the cinnamon group's temperature change to be higher than all the other groups.
I learned that no matter what kind of gum you are chewing, the temperature in your mouth still changes and increases. However, due to some of the errors, I do not know for sure if the cinnamon flavor has an affect on a person's mouth.
Cinnamon group had the highest change in temperature. I would have to do another experiment without errors to find a definite answer.
This project wanted to see chewing gum raises the temperature of a person's mouth regardless of gum flavor