Science/Materials & Change

We made smores in the microwave. The recipe is very simple.

Ingredients:

2 Digestive biscuits per person

1 square of chocolate per person

1 Marshmallow per person

Method:

Place a square of chocolate on a digestive biscuit, then place a marshmallow on top.

Place in the microwave for 15 seconds.

Place the other digestive biscuit on top and serve .

They were delicious.

We discovered that marshmallows melt because they are mostly sugar and water wrapped around a bunch of air bubbles. When we heated the marshmallows in the microwave oven, several things happened at once.

The microwave makes the water molecules vibrate very quickly—which makes the water heat up. The hot water heats up the sugar, which makes it softer. The hot water also heats up the air bubbles, which makes the air bubbles get bigger. The air bubbles push against the sugar and water and the marshmallow gets softer and bigger.