Developing a Close Personal Relationship with a Twinkie/Peanut

 Twinkosuction
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and Spamatzoa
Developing a deep personal relationship with a Twinkie
John Cafarella
Anatomy of a Twinkie
Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Flour Ferrous Sulfate)
“B” Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine, Mononitrate, B2, Folic Acid)
Sugar
Corn Syrup
High Fructose corn Syrup,
Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening
(Contains one or more of: Soybean, canola or palm oil)
Dextrose,
Whole Eggs
Contains 2% or less of: Modified Corn Starch, Cellulose Gum, Whey, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophospate, Baking
Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate)
Salt
Cornstarch
Corn flour
Corn dextrins
Mono and diglycerides
Polysorbate 60
Soy lecithin
Natural and Artificial flavors
Soy protein isolate
Soium Stearoyl Lactylate
Sodium and calcium caseinate
Calcium sulfate
Sorbic acid (to retain freshness)
Color added (Yellow 5, red 40)
May contain peanuts or traces of peanuts.
John Cafarella
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Objective: Your objective today is to
characterize the physical and possibly
chemical properties of the infamous
Twinkie, and paint a sketch of its allure
and immense popularity. Perhaps . . .
even answer the beguiling question: how
did Twinkies fall out of favor, and lose its
charm to modern-day teenagers who for
some inexplicable reason prefer the iPods
and texting?
John Cafarella
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When we have finished brainstorming, and sharing, you’ll move into
your group and decide which test(s) you want to perform. We’ll
pool our data together at the end of class. Remember: leave lab
station and equipment clean. And yes, if you choose to do so, you
may eat the leftovers.
Data: Give a description of the test (s) your group performed and
data.
Twinkie Test: Observations:
List at least 1 test and some observations (data) from each
group:
Twinkie Test: Compressibility
Observations:Twinkie Test: Solubility
Observations:Twinkie Test: Combustion
Observations:Twinkie Test: Reaction with acid
Observations:Twinkie Test: Electrical Conductivity
John Cafarella
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Write-up: Simply answer the questions below—yes—in complete sentences. You may even
want to use a dictionary as words used in unusual ways can add to the text’s appeal.
1. Compare and Contrast the physical characteristics of the Twinkie vs. the cell phone. Include a
summary statement as to which object is more attractive to you.
2. What elements/chemical compounds do you think Twinkies are made of? Don’t cheat—don’t
look at the box! Speculate. Get out your Periodic Table of Elements.
3. Have you ever reflected on the emotional state of Twinkie? Do you think a Twinkie has
feelings? Y / N /Maybe. Support your statement with at least two arguments.
4. How would you redesign a Twinkie to make it more competitive with iPods or cell phones?
(Why iPpods/cell phones are so attractive today’s modern teenager?)
5. What questions do you have a burning desire to ask Hostess—Twinkies’ manufacturer?
6. What did you learn today?
7. What did you find interesting in what you learned?
8. List some real world applications of this lab. (What knowledge have you gained that could be
applied to the real world and/or enhance your life, and help you to become a life-long learner?)
9. Write a conclusion. It must contain at least 2 well-written sentences. Entertain me!!
Teacher’s Notes:
Equipment: balances, paper towels, plastic knives, weighing boats, small blender, rulers,
candle/BB, match, ringstand, alcohol, crucible, hand lens, vinegar, HCl, pH paper, electrical
conductivity device,
First observations: color, texture, moisture on inside of cellophone (what gas is in there?)
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John Cafarella
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Shape of the Twinkie
Distribution of brown golden sponge cake vs. white cream
Density using a large graduated cylinder—water displacement, or crude length,
width, depth measurements (vol. about 150 ml, after bending, about 2 ml)
Somewhat more destructive tests:
Mass : weighing whole; brown stuff and white stuff
Volume: assuming Twinkie is a cylinder: hpi(r2)
: estimate the volume of the white cream
Density of gases: mass Twinkie and cellophane, and take volume, remove cellophane
and mass, and take/measure volume again; density about .3 g/ml; mass about 43 g
Compressibility: take volume, then liquify in a blender (add 100 ml water)—estimate
on what % volume is gas; about 2 ml is recovered as “Twinkie”
Dissection: draw
More physical characteristics:
Malleable, Brittle (crush with hammer)
Ductile?
Conductive ? yes, slightly; dried ones don’t conduct
John Cafarella
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Solubility test: weigh whole and part
: put in water, stir. Soluble?
: heat water to 100 filter, dry and weigh suspended material; unable to filter
: in oil (polar, non-polar), solubility improve with increasing T
Radiation test: put in a microwave, physical or chemical change?
Elasticity: how high does it bounce? Compared to a cell phone—anyone want to
volunteer—hah, hah; drop from a height of 5 feet; use meter stick to measure; no
bounce.
Adsorptivity: measure volume, then put in a beaker of water, oil other solvent?
Alcohol? Measure new volume (tie into Foul Water Lab); Qualtiative and Qunatitative
measurements.
Adhesion: sticks to ceiling (white part up) for 13 seconds
Dissection: Use ½ of Twinkie to dissect : Draw a sketch
Chemical:
Combustibility/Oxidation test: burn over a BB. It burns producing a black
substance—carbon. The white stuff becomes more liquefied, doesn’t burn. Soluble?
Black stuff floats on water.
Reaction to acid (weak) vinegar: none
Reaction to HCl : none // pH-control--neutral
John Cafarella
A Twinkie Task
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Think of Five Ways to Measure a Twinkie
John Cafarella
A Twinkie Mystery
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Whither goest the “white stuff” in John’s
Twinkie.
What caused it to “goest”?
John Cafarella
Measurement of non-standard items
What tools will we need to measure the length of the twinkie?
Width?
Diameter?
Weight?
What steps must we take in the procedure?
November 03
Current Twinkie
John Cafarella
Aging Twinkie
Why did this happen occur?
How can we identify the gas?
John Cafarella
This is Desiccated to the One I Love – Heat and Cold Treated
Twinkie (Ancient Twinkie)
White Stuff is Gone !!!!!
John Cafarella
A Twinkectomy
Ancient Twinkie
Contemporary Twinkie
Compare and Contrast
John Cafarella
How can we determine how
Much “white stuff is in a twinkie
What percentage of the twinkie
Is “white stuff”?
What is the density of the “white
Stuff”?
How can we measure it?
Twinkosuction
John Cafarella
Performing a Twinksplant from current Twinkie to Contemporary Twinkie
John Cafarella
The cat preferred the Ancient
Twinkie to the current Twinkie
Note: No animals were
harmed during this experiment
John Cafarella
Contemporary Twinkie
Ancient
Twinkie
An Update
John Cafarella
Ancient Twinkie
Note white stuff turning into sludge
John Cafarella
Ancient Twinkie
White stuff not doing well
John Cafarella
Twinkies and Slime
Preparation for Slime Reaction
John Cafarella
Twinkies and Slime (Boric acid, polyvinyl alcohol, food coloring
John Cafarella
John Cafarella
One Hour Later
John Cafarella
The ugly aftermath – the importance of
cleaning up
John Cafarella
And Now…..
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Can of SPAM
John Cafarella
John Cafarella
John Cafarella
Spamatzoa – the unknown substances in spam
Spamatazoa
Remove spamatazoa
Identify composition of spamatazoa
Measure
Density?
% of spam?
List tools and steps in the procedure
Spamatazoa
John Cafarella
A World First!!!!!!!
John Cafarella