The purpose of this experiment is to find out which M&M has more chocolate, a peanut M&M or a plain M&M. Before we even began our experiment we researched the subject thoroughly. We looked up M&M’s, peanuts, and chocolate on the World Wide Web. Here is some of the information that we found.

A man named Forrest E. Mars first made M&M’s in 1940. He made them because people stopped buying chocolate in the summer because it would melt. Forrest E. Mars made M&M’s with a candy shell around the chocolate. The candy shell prevented the chocolate from melting and making a mess. The peanut variety of M&M’s was first introduced in 1954.

Chocolate has existed much longer than M&M’s. The Aztecs first discovered that cocoa could be used to flavor certain foods. They used it to make beverages. Chocolate is made from cocoa, and cocoa comes from the cacao tree. Chocolate is made by cleaning, blending, and mixing powdered cacao beans with milk, and sugar. The mixture then becomes a solid, which is chocolate. Americans on average eat 11.3 pounds of chocolate per person per year.

The peanut is not actually a nut. It is part of the legume family. Legumes are warm seasoned plants like beans and peas. Many types of peanuts exist, and both small and large-seeded kinds are grown in the United States. The large-seeded variety is used for boiled peanuts, and small-seeded types are used for peanut butter and peanut oil. Peanuts are nutritious, and contain a lot of protein.

• 1 bag Plain M&M’s
• 1 bag Peanut M&M’s
• 1 Scale
• 1 Weigh boat
• 1 Butter knife

1. Take ten plain M&M’s out of the bag and number them 1 through 10.
2. Weigh each M&M separately.
3. Record each weight.
4. Take ten peanut M&M’s out of the bag and number them 1 through 10.
5. Weigh each peanut M&M separately.
6. Record each weight.
7. Cut each peanut out of its chocolate casing and number it the same number as the M&M it came from.
8. Weigh each peanut separately.
9. Record the weight of each peanut.
10. Subtract the weight of peanut #1 from the weight of the peanut M&M #1. This is the weight of the chocolate in the peanut M&M.
11. Do the same for the rest of the peanut M&M’s.
12. Compare the weight of plain M&M #1 to the weight of the chocolate of peanut M&M #1.
13. Do the same for the rest of plain M&M’s and the chocolate of the peanut M&M’s.
14. Average the weight of the plain M&M’s, the peanut M&M’s, and the peanuts separately.
15. Subtract the average weight of the peanut from the average weight of the peanut M&M’s. Compare this to the average weight of the plain M&M’s.

Hypothesis

We hypothesize that plain M&M’s have more chocolate than peanut M&M’s. The reason for this is that the peanuts inside the peanut M&M’s take up space, leaving room for less chocolate.

We found out that our hypothesis was wrong. The average plain M&M has 0.878 grams of chocolate. The average peanut M&M has 1.674 grams of chocolate. This shows that peanut M&M’s have more chocolate than plain M&M.

Team F would like to thank our Mentors, Janetta and Amy. We would also like to thank Dr. Hensel for teaching us how to set up a science experiment.