Jakarta – Jelly has a pliable texture and jiggles when served on a plate. It turns out that the reason jelly can wobble has something to do with physics!
Besides that, the cause of the jelly wagging is also influenced by the material it is made of. Check out the following explanation.
Reported from detikEduAccording to the Royal Society of Chemistry, jelly is a type of colloid (a sticky substance) known as a hydrogel. Meanwhile, hydrogel is a network of solid polymer chains that are dispersed through water.
The solid polymer chains in the jelly are called gelatin. And gelatin exists because of a mixture of different amino acids.
Usually gelatin is made through the process of partial hydrolysis of collagen from animal skins and bones. But over time, now gelatin can be made from seaweed plants.
Therefore, there is an alternative for vegetarians who do not eat meat but vegetables and plant products.
Ingredients for Jelly
The basic ingredient for making jelly is gelatin. This material was not arbitrary, gelatin is an extraordinary material.
Gelatin is able to absorb water 10 times. Nevertheless, gelatin is still safe for consumption because it is tasteless, odorless and colorless.
Gelatin is not only used to make jelly, it is also usually used as a thickening agent, in cosmetics and medicines.
Hot water will be mixed with gelatin powder which can be found in food stores when you want to make jelly. The hydrogen bonds between the gelatin polymer chains will be broken by the hot water.
Therefore, the jelly stretches and can be shaped according to the container it is in. Then the jelly must go through a cooling process before it can finally be consumed.
The cooling process makes the polymer chains in the gelatin bind again and form again. They will build a three-dimensional net that contains a collection of amino acids and traps water molecules.
Basically gelatin is a protein that can be digested by enzymes. Therefore, you should not add other ingredients that contain enzymes such as fresh pineapple and kiwi.
These fruits contain the enzymes bromelain and actinidain which can break down the polymer chains in gelatin. When the gelatin polymer chains break, water won’t be trapped and the jelly can smell bad.
Physics in Jelly
Jellies can also jiggle because of the prevailing physics, namely the phenomenon of resonance. Basically, jelly is just water held together by gelatin polymer chains.
Therefore, jellies can pick up vibrations in the same way as liquids. Even jelly is capable of jiggling from the slightest jolt.
The gelatin polymer chain helps the resonance phenomenon to work properly. The chains hold the jelly in place even when kinetic energy hits it.
Jelly can also jiggle due to its elastic nature. The gelatin material in this jelly has polymer chain bonds that can prevent it from stretching and returning to its original state.
So it can be concluded, the jelly can dance on the plate because of the kinetic energy that is transferred into vibrations. This causes the phenomenon of resonance.
The jelly can even wobble more if the vibrations are amplified throughout the hydrogel structure of the jelly causing the polymer chains inside to change shape.
However, the elastic polymer chain that the jelly has will return to its original state if the energy source is removed.
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(urw/alk)
