Chewing Gums Lab Report

Discussion
The research question of this paper asks: How is the pH of one’s mouth after a constant meal affected by the different sugar levels of various chewing gums. The chosen hypothesis was wrong for both the minty and sweet gums as it stated that their pH would be ultimately be acidic and there’d be a reduction form the initial pH. However, only one chewing gum had a significant decrease in its pH; the other pH values increased and either became alkaline or less acidic. There were several questions and statements that were brought up in the introduction that were answered or extensively discussed. Firstly, ‘free amino acids’ and their effect on their pH was briefly discussed throughout this paper. A free amino acid is one is not connected …show more content…
The inaccuracy of my hypothesis helps highlight the key results in this lab: minty gums do not noticeably affect the pH of the mouth as they return to the range of the average human mouth and are close to the initial pH of the mouth. However, sweet gums casuwe the mouth to become alkaline and it can be said from Graph 1 and 2 that as the amount of sugars in the gum decreases, the pH pf the mouth increases. The sources of errors consisted of slow reaction times, the lack of calibration in the weighing scale and the undependable pH strips. It is evident that lack of calibration was a problem in this lab because it was mentioned numerous times in the ‘Sources of Improvements.’ This lab proved to be very informative about the dangers of chewing sweet gums because of how they affect the pH of the mouth and subsequently the body; as mentioned above in ‘Discussion,’ pH buffers are used by the body to control its pH; but to ensure that we do not overwork these buffers we must watch what we eat. The alkalinity of the mouth also gave me the idea that after eating a highly acidic meal (ex: corn, noodles), sweet gums can be chewed to bring the body’s pH level down and ensure that it does not get too