Double Stuf?

Have you ever wondered how stuffed Double Stuf Oreos are? I have, and so have my lab students.

So we decided to do an experiment to see if the mass and/or volume of "stuf" in a Double-Stuf Oreo was actually double that in a regular Oreo.

First we measured the mass of frosting in several cookies. To do this we measured the full cookie, then removed the frosting (with our handy frosting-removal tool, aka teeth. yum!) and weighed again. The difference gave us the mass of the frosting in each cookie.

Next we measured the volume of the frosting, by using Archimedes Principle. We measured the volume of water in a graduated cylinder, added the frosting from one cookie to the water, and measured the level of the water again. (Note: we did this quickly to avoid any problems that might come from the frosting absorbing the water.) By finding the difference in volume, we found the volume of the frosting.

So, now for the moment you've all been waiting for... our results! Is a Double Stuf Oreo really doubly stuffed?

It turns out that the volume of filling in a Double Stuf Oreo is considerably greater than the volume of filling in a regular-stuf mint cream Oreo, but not twice as much. The volume for the Double Stuf was about 1.63 times as large.

However... the mass of the filling in a Double Stuf Oreo is actually less than the mass of filling in a regular-stuf mint cream Oreo. Wow! That means there is actually less stuf (matter) in a Double Stuf Oreo. Disappointing, indeed.

What about energy - how much energy do I get by eating an Oreo? Turns out the calories per cookie listed on both containers were identical. Whatever extra mass or volume there might be is apparently non-caloric.

You may be thinking to yourself that we were comparing apples and oranges to compare Double-Stuf white frosting to regular-stuf mint frosting, and we fully agree. We were making do with what we had at the time, but next week in lab we will be comparing Apples to Apples (a fun game, by the way - almost as fun as Dominion, but I digress). Stay tuned next week to see how Double Stuf Oreos fare in a head-to-head challenge with original Oreos.

And... more Oreos to eat in the name of science!