Eli5: what causes bubblegum to stay intact and not quickly break down when chewed?
In: 1
Plastic. I’m not even kidding. Chewing gun uses synthetic polymers to give it its chewy characteristics.
Yep— like u/driverofracecars said, the “[gum base](https://www.gumbase.com/gumbase/)” that is used for bubble gum is made mainly from polymers — plastic and rubber, basically.
A long time ago, gum used to be made from natural products— certain kinds of tree sap, stuff like that, and wasn’t nearly as engineered as modern gum.
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