Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: CliffordK on 21/02/2012 04:17:32
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What is Jello (Gelatin Dessert)?
Solid?
Liquid?
Neither?
When anhydrous, it seems to be a crystalline solid.
Add hot water, and it seems to melt.
It seems to go through a phase change around room temperature, to make the wiggly jiggly stuff.
Toss it into the freezer, and it goes through another phase change, and turns to crystalline ice.
So, what phase is the wiggly jiggly stuff?
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It used to be horses hooves, but I'm not sure they do that anymore..
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It's a solid. It just is a bit softer and more elastic than most.
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It used to be horses hooves, but I'm not sure they do that anymore..
It is an animal product ...
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Materials_Used_in_Gelatin_Production.svg/294px-Materials_Used_in_Gelatin_Production.svg.png)
So you have an excuse not to give any of your jelly-babies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelly_baby) to vegetarians.
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Come to think of it, maybe that was glue!
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And is all Kosher.............
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It is neither liquid nor solid, it is a gel; a gel is a colloidal system with open microchannels (actually nanochannels) for liquid flow and a cage-like solid framework. In this case the liquid is water with dissolved sugar and a little of the dissolved protein gelatin; the solid framework is amorphous solid gelatin, an elastomer.
For more info, check out gel, and/or colloid, and/or gelatin, and/or elastomer in a web search.
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Thanks damocles,
That explains why you can freeze Jello, and it becomes solid ice.
If it was a true solid in its jiggly form, then the water molecules would be bound to the protein molecules, which isn't the case.