Why is this behaving this way?

Just a peace of gum in a 14hr old flat beer, it seems to spin a lot and will drop to the bottom of the bottle and shoot back up. This has been going on for hours.

Just curious if anyone knows what causes this to happen and if its rare or not, i couldn't find anything on it with a Google search (may have worded it wrong)

Originally posted by Alaskan Man
Just a peace of gum in a 14hr old flat beer, it seems to spin a lot and will drop to the bottom of the bottle and shoot back up. This has been going on for hours.

Just curious if anyone knows what causes this to happen and if its rare or not, i couldn't find anything on it with a Google search (may have worded it wrong)

Basically if i understand my science right......the CO2 bubbles accumulate on the surface of the gum while submerged. The bubbles then force the gum to float. After a certain amount of time and banging up at the surface the bubbles will pop and eventually the gum will sink only to repeat the process again.

Correct me if I didnt quite make the right analysis there

reply to post by Alaskan Man


I Flagged this and Starred it only in the hopes that you'll answer this question for me. How...more so, why pray tell, is there ABC gum in your beer Sir?

Neat reaction though none the less, and the fact that you took the time to film it, post it on Youtube, and then post it on ATS, is worthy of a S&F as well. I wonder, if you tried to shape the gum a little, as opposed to being in a wad as it is, try different molding techniques and see if you can indeed get it to do some tricks

Try making it into a ring and see what it does. Wth, if anything, you may have stumbled upon the next "cool bar trick" if you happen across a mold that makes it do even neater stuff.

Try molding it to see if you can get a constant motion out of it, kind of like a water mill effect, where the bubbles will act as a propulsion system of sorts and keep it in constant motion. Don't stop at the wad dude, your time is now to make this the best it can be.

Originally posted by UberL33t
reply to post by Alaskan Man

 

Try making it into a ring and see what it does. Wth, if anything, you may have stumbled upon the next "cool bar trick" if you happen across a mold that makes it do even neater stuff.

Try molding it to see if you can get a constant motion out of it, kind of like a water mill effect, where the bubbles will act as a propulsion system of sorts and keep it in constant motion. Don't stop at the wad dude, your time is now to make this the best it can be.

I would like to see this as well. I see now its in the correct forum at least so couldnt hurt displaying basics of scientific observation

Its a sign from god.
Its aliens
A UFO is doing it
There is a reptilian close by
Ghosts
Poltergeist

or

You can see the bubbles on the gum. Theres probably a chemical process going on whereby the bubbles are attracted to the gum. These bubbles break loose and float upwards but are once again attracted to the gum so slip between the surface of the water and gum...producing the spin.

The gum loses its buoyancy and sinks when the bubbles pop and can no longer support the gum. Once it hits the bottom it (beer and gum) produces more co2 bubbles and lifts it back to the top...and so on and so on

reply to post by UberL33t


LOL love your reply.

The beer was just one i had left out from the night before on my computer desk, this morning i was browsing the web while chewing gum, the gum became stale so i wanted to spit it out, saw the bottle and just dropped it in there, never thought twice about it.

a couple hours later i notice that i keep seeing something move out of the corner of my eye, i watch the bottle for a min and sure enough the peace of gum is going up and down and rolling around.

No specific shape, no extra effort was put into it. After a while i just got curious why it was happening so i just recorded a couple mins with my phone and uploaded to youtube.

The gum was Trident Tropical Twist (best gum ever IMO) and the beer was just a old flat Budweiser

Originally posted by Alaskan Man
reply to post by UberL33t

 

LOL love your reply.

The beer was just one i had left out from the night before on my computer desk, this morning i was browsing the web while chewing gum, the gum became stale so i wanted to spit it out, saw the bottle and just dropped it in there, never thought twice about it.

a couple hours later i notice that i keep seeing something move out of the corner of my eye, i watch the bottle for a min and sure enough the peace of gum is going up and down and rolling around.

No specific shape, no extra effort was put into it. After a while i just got curious why it was happening so i just recorded a couple mins with my phone and uploaded to youtube.

The gum was Trident Tropical Twist (best gum ever IMO) and the beer was just a old flat Budweiser

Its amazing though, how such amazing achievements of mankind have come from original, simple observations like this one you made here. And often they are so unintentional things. Science rocks!

And yes best freaking gum evar.

reply to post by topherman420


kind of cool, its been about 6-7 hours now and that gum is still twisting and falling/rising at the same speed as before.

reply to post by Alaskan Man

I was serious about stumbling upon the next cool bar trick for reals. You should seriously experiment with a few different shapes and see if you can produce different results than just bobbing up and down as a wad. Hell, if anything, it could thwart you a few free drinks just for the sheer coolness factor that people will see it for. It's a neat reaction, and I assume the gum has an all but buoyant quality and the bubbles are what send it over the top (no pun intended).

Try a few shapes for S&G's to see what happens, if you get a really cool result post it. I'll give you a Star . I am quantifying different shapes as we speak that I think may do some neat things. Gum is mold-able so the possibilities are endless. Hook it up dude...we're waiting & junk.

is anyone else reading this and thinking, "this is gonna be the web's newest meme."?

reply to post by toreishi


I for one am, and I think I want it to be so. Therein lies why I am so adamant that he continue. If anything, we can say, "yeah, I know the inventor" as we buff our nails around the group of people amazed by this other than worldly beer/gum anomaly.

Ooooooo there's the scientific name for it right there... "The Beergum Effect" ...see man, this was meant to be, it has a name now even. I am hoping that by the lack of response as of recent, he is feverishly molding shapes and recording the videos and is soon going to post his findings.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


Agh.. I wish I remember the name of the gadget that someone bought me once upon a time that does something similar. It was a type of thermometer with liquids in each ball that rose or fell due to temperature. My guess is that if it were flat, it would stay at the top and if it were pure gum.. like a gum eraser.. it would plunk to the bottom. You've found a kind of tenuous balance between mass, shape, bouyancy and other factors that cause the gum to rise and fall. I'm dodgy on the laws of thermodynamics but I'd say that given enough time, the action would end, the force required to sustain the motion eventually puttering out and the gum would either rise or fall.

Still, very neat observation. Kudos. I wonder if pure carbonated water would have so much lift as the gum would never sink until long after the carbonation was depleted?

P.S.: The force to sustain the thermometer also petered out and the device stopped moving whatsoever. Curse you thermodynamics. You win again.

reply to post by Pastamancer


I think I know what you're talking about, this?



To the OP: As topherman420 said, it's due to the carbon dioxide sticking to the surface of the gum causing it to rise. Once it reaches the top, the bubbles pop releasing the gas, whereon it sinks again.

Dancing Raisin Experiment

- Phoenix