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Measurement Statistics: Color Distribution in M&Ms
Required Reading D.C. Harris, Quantitative Chemical Analysis (9th ed., W. H. Freeman, NY, 2016) pp. 64-80
. Data rejection and Data Reporting sections of the Analytical Lab Manual.
This experiment will introduce the student to some of the basic statistics that will be used in the lab.
M&M’S are produced by a method known as panning. Panning involves coating candies by rotating
them in a coating material in a revolving pan. The principle, briefly, is to coat the center with a layer of
material, which on evaporation leaves an even layer or shell of dry substance. This process is repeated
several times until the desired thickness is acquired.
The colors are panned separately, then mixed before the final process is completed. Regardless of the
color, the flavor remains the same. The ‘m’ is printed on the candies by a machine specially designed to
handle this delicate process without cracking the thin sugar shell. This process is similar to offset
printing. About 400 million M&M’S CHOCOLATE CANDIES are made daily. The color blends were
selected by conducting consumer preference tests, which indicate the assortment of colors that pleased
the greatest number of people and created the most attractive overall effect. According to the
manufacturer, each package of Milk Chocolate M&M’s should contain 24% blue, 13% brown, 16% green,
20% orange, 13% red, and 14% yellow M&M’s on average.1
Materials
Each student will be given a package of M&M's (plain). Each student is to count the number of each
color and determine the fraction (# color / # total) of each color for his or her pack of M&M's before
they are eaten.
After you have entered these calculations in your notebook, when you are finished, enter your data into
the Excel spreadsheet so we can tabulate the results for the entire lab.
1 Note, interestingly the color distributions are not the same for the other types of candies:
M&M’S PEANUT: 23% cyan blue, 23% orange, 15% green, 15% bright yellow, 12% red, 12% brown.
M&M’S KIDS MINIS: 25% cyan blue, 25% orange, 12% green, 13% bright yellow, 12% red, 13% brown.
M&M’S DARK: 17% cyan blue, 16% orange, 16% green, 17% bright yellow, 17% red, 17% brown.
M&M’S PEANUT BUTTER and ALMOND: 20% cyan blue, 20% orange, 20% green, 20% bright yellow, 10%
red, 10% brown.
M&M’S PRETZEL: 20% each of red, green, orange, blue and brown.
