Tests With Inorganic Noxious Kakes In Extreme Situations

 

The Twinkie what exactly is it? This is the question that has plagued many people for nearly a quarter of a century. Appoo the Quickie Mart clerk of the Simpson’s TV show has come forward in saying that "Twinkies are indestructible." So we must ask ourselves exactly what is a Twinkie, and how did a simple little cake receive so much attention. First off all we really know is that the Twinkie is a tasty snack. If we check the box with the list ingredients we can see that the Twinkies are composed of: enriched flour (niacin, iron (ferrous sulfate), thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin), water, sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated vegetable and/or animal shortening (contains one or more of: canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, beef fat), eggs, and dextrose, and also containing no more than 2% of modified food starch, whey, leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), salt, starch, yellow corn flour, corn syrup solids, mono and diglycerides, dextrin, calcium, caseinate, sodium stearoyl, lactylate, cellulose gum, polysorbate 60, wheat gluten, lecithin, flavors (artificial, natural), artificial colors (yellow 5, red 40), caramel color, preservatives (sorbic acid).

What do all these ingredients really tell us? A group of pseudo scientists including my self have composed some experiments that will hopefully bring us to a better understand of what make a Twinkie and how it responds to the environment. For this experiment we will use multiple method of testing in the areas of: gravitational response test, raped oxidation test, radiation test, decomposition test, and a solubility test.
 
 

 

Gravitational Response of a Twinkie

Materials

The Materials we will use in this test are:

• 10 pack box of Twinkies with the serial number of 608/027 1606 and an expiration date of July 30th.
• Three Standard Unwrapped Twinkies
• One Wrapped Twinkies
• One four story building approximately 66 feet (Willard Hall).

Description

To test and see the response of the Twinkies to gravitational forces. Before the experiment all the Twinkies were identical in structure. One unwrapped Twinkie was dropped from the fourth floor of the Willard Education Hall building at the University of Delaware. Before the Twinkies could be dropped the height of the building must have been determined. This was done by dropping a small rock off the side of the building and recorded the amount of time it took to hit the ground. Since the rock had little wind resistance we determined the net force was equal to net mass, and this was the rate at which all objects should fall. The formula used to determine the height of the building was distance = ½ -9.8 m/s2 time^2. It took the rock two seconds to fall, so the height of the building was calculated at 66 feet.

A control Twinkie was left on the edge for comparison purposes. The wrapped Twinkie was dropped from the same spot on the fourth floor. The trails were repeated three times while a third Twinkie was added to the experiment, to see the different effect that a saturated Twinkie would have
 
 
 

Gravitational Response of a Twinkie

Results

As the unwrapped Twinkie fell no notable changes were observed; the same held true for the wrapped Twinkie. After releasing the wrapped and the unwrapped spongy cakes we noticed little difference in the rate of time which it took the Twinkies to fall. After the unwrapped Twinkie fell and hit the ground we observed a medium size fissure on the side of the Twinkie. As the wrapped Twinkie came into contact with the group a loud pop was detected, but there was no noticeable difference from the unwrapped Twinkie. The fissures were identical between the two. The idea was proposed to add a saturated Twinkie to the experiment. To add mass to the Twinkie it was hypothesized to fall at a different rate. It did, the average saturated Twinkie free fall time was 2.5 seconds while the unwrapped and wrapped Twinkie were consistently the same at a rate of 2.8.
 
 

Unwrapped Twinkie	Wrapped Twinkie	Saturated Twinkie
2.8 sec	2.8 sec	2.5 sec

The as the saturated Twinkie came in contact with the ground a splat was detected. The splat was not as loud as the pop of the wrapped Twinkie, but the actual Twinkie was almost disintegrated. This was an observation quite a noticeable different from the wrapped and unwrapped Twinkie. As expected, there was no change observable from the control Twinkie throughout all the trails.
 
 
 
 
 

Gravitational Response of a Twinkie

Conclusion

From the results from this experiment we can tell that Twinkies are effected by gravity. To note, the Twinkie wrapper did not add any protection to the fall. It was hypothesized that the wrapper would have created an air cushion to dissipate the force upon the Twinkie after falling from a lofty height. Although the effects of the impact were less than anticipated for the wrapped and unwrapped Twinkie the effects of gravitational forces on the saturated Twinkie were much more than ever expected. The saturated Twinkie was nearly disintegrated. What can we deduce from this well first off a notable loss of structural integrity was detected after saturation of the Twinkie. Second one must take into account the different rate at which the saturated Twinkie fell. Air resistance must have played a part in the different rates of falling Twinkies. With the rate of 2.8 sec the time it took for the wrapped and unwrapped Twinkies it took to hit the ground, air drag must have built up and reduced the net force. As air drag increases acceleration decreases as the net force is reduced. The saturated Twinkie must have weighed more that the wrapped and unwrapped Twinkie, thus air drag did not built up enough to slow the rate of acceleration and did not reduce the net force greatly upon the Twinkie. This would account for the less amount of time it took the saturated Twinkie compared to the other two. Thus, more net force was applied to the saturated Twinkie than the wrapped and unwrapped Twinkies. The conclusion for this experiment if one were to be hit from a falling Twinkie from the sky it would be safer to have it as unsaturated Twinkie than a saturated one.
 
 

MATERIALS: For this project, I used one standard Twinkie, one cup of Delaware water, in a plastic ThermoServ cup.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this experiment is to test the solubility of a Twinkie and basically see what happens to it when it is submersed in water.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: The Twinkie was placed in the clear plastic cup which was filled with Delaware water for approximately 48 hours.

OBSERVATIONS: Before the test, the Twinkie appeared as a "normal Twinkie". When the water was first poured, it appeared foggy, but settled in a minute or so. As soon as the Twinkie was placed in the water, it grew to approximately twice its normal size. It also began to lose its structure because the water weakened it durability. The Twinkie's color grew pale and the water below the Twinkie began to turn yellowish and murky, but the water above stayed clear. When observing it later, the creamy filling was beginning to ooze out of the top of the Twinkie, and pieces of the cake started to break off and float around in the water. After 48 hours, most of the filling had oozed out of the top of the Twinkie, and there was practically no structural support of the Twinkie. At this point, the color of the water had changed to a dark, murky yellowish-brown color.

RESULTS: The Twinkie over the 48 hours of it being submersed in the water, had doubled in size, lost the cream filling that was in the middle, discolored the water making it a yellowish-brown, and lost all structue making the Twinkie a bunch of wet pieces of cake.

CONCLUSION: When submersed in water, the Twinkie will absorb the water as it slowly begins to break apart more and more until it has lost all structure. The cream filling will ooze out after about 24 hours, and the water becomes discolored.
 

MATERIALS: One Twinkie, one window ledge

PROCEDURE: Place an unwrapped Twinkie outside on a window ledge for 7 days and take notice of what happens to it when exposed to changing in climate.

PREDICTIONS (HYPOTHESIS): When a Twinkie is placed outside for 7 days, it should get hard (stale) and begin to form mold.

OBSERVATIONS: The Twinkie sat out on a window ledge for 7 days and on the first two days, it rained. The other 7 days were partly sunny. During the 7 days, it rained one of the nights. The temperature ranged from a high of 58 degrees farenhight to 72 degrees farenhite and a low of 44 degrees Farenhite to 53 degrees Farenhite.

CONCLUSION: The Twinkie did not have any mold growing on it like suspected. Instead, the Twinkie just began to become stale. It began to get staler as the days went on. It was still moist for the first two days.

MATERIALS: 2 Twinkies, rubbing alcohol (isopropyl), BIC lighter

PROCEDURE: First, try lighting non-alcohol Twinkie on fire. Hold lighter to Twinkie
for a few seconds until something happens and observe then what happens.
Then, douse second Twinkie with the rubbing alcohol and let it dry out.
When Twinkie is dry hold lighter to Twinkie in attempts to set it on fire
and observe what happens.

PREDICTIONS (HYPOTHESIS): Since Twinkies are moist it probably won't go up in flames, but it will probably toast it. There probably will be more success in the doused Twinkie. Not sure if it will burst in flames but there will probably be
some flames.

OBSERVATIONS: After attempting to set fire to the "regular" Twinkie it did not go up in flames but the Twinkie did turn black from the flames and got hot. When putting flame to the Twinkie doused in rubbing alcohol it immediately went up in flames. The cake started turning brown and black and the crème filling started oozing out and also turned brown.

CONCLUSIONS: The consistency of Twinkies is to moist to set on fire but by putting
flammable solutions on the Twinkie and allowing to dry out the Twinkie will
go up in flames.

MATERIALS: 2 Twinkies, microwave

OBJECTIVE: to test the durability of a Twinkie when exposed to extreme radiation

PROCEDURE: Unwrap the Twinkie. Then place the Twinkie in the microwave for 10 minutes. Remove the Twinkie from the microwave. Make observations and record results.

OBSERVATIONS: I observed that a couple of seconds after the microwave was started, the Twinkie began to ooze creamy filling out of the sides. A few seconds after that the center of the Twinkie collapsed in on itself. Then the creamy filling began bubbling up and it eventually turned brown. The Twinkie started smoking around 1 min so I had to stop the experiment.

RESULTS: several minutes after I removed the Twinkie from the microwave, the burnt ooze began to harden up. There was really no other change and the control remained the same.

CONCLUSION: Twinkies are better eaten fresh out of the wrapper. I wouldn’t recommend microwaving one unless you like the taste of wood.