Hey there! Tonight, we’re having a movie night with friends, and you know what that means? Popcorn time! Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks because it’s light, fluffy, and crunchy. But have you ever wondered how those hard seeds turn into delicious popcorn?
Popcorn starts as a small, hard seed called a kernel. It’s a special type of corn that grows on a cob, just like the sweet corn you might eat in the fall. The corn on the cob is actually the seeds of the corn plant. Once the corn is fully grown, we dry the seeds to remove most of the water. Then, we can pop these seeds into yummy popcorn!
To see how popcorn changes, we can use an air popper or a pan with a little cooking oil. First, we measure out about half a cup of kernels. It might not look like much, but you’ll be surprised at how much popcorn it makes!
Each popcorn kernel is hard, but inside, there’s a little bit of water. Even after drying, some water stays inside the seed, and it’s super important! When we heat the popcorn, the water inside starts to expand. As it gets hotter, the water turns into steam, which is a gas.
The steam has nowhere to go because the hard shell of the kernel traps it inside. As the steam grows, it pushes against the shell until it bursts open. That’s when the popcorn pops, turning into white, fluffy pieces!
Each piece of popcorn is much bigger than the tiny kernels we started with. That’s because the inside of the seed also contains food for the seed, called starch. The starch gets bigger when heated, just like the water. When the popcorn pops, the starch comes out and turns into the fluffy snack we love.
Isn’t it amazing how much popcorn changes just by heating it up? Once it pops, it stays popped, even if it cools down. Some things change when heated and go back to their original form when cooled, like steam turning back into water. But popcorn stays deliciously popped!
Wasn’t that fun? Science can be both fun and tasty! Can you think of other things that change when heated? Do they stay the same when they cool down, or do they return to their original form?
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