do you believe this?

[slaphapy]

ok, i assume most of you have seen the tootsie Pop commercial, where Wise Mr. Owl decides to find out the amount of licks it takes to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop... so he counts "Ah-one [lick], ah-two[lick], ah-three[CRUNCH]." yet he didnt' ever finish, he bit into it on the third lick...

well there was a group of college students that actually decided that the Wise Mr. Owl just didn't supply an answer that satisfied them... so they decided to conduct a study ;)

they set up some simple ground rules to make sure it could be controlled the were:

1) No one could put the entire Tootsie Pop in their mouth. That would be "sucking" and only "licking" was allowed.

2) Everyone had the same flavor as a "control."

3) Each person could choose whether to lick on only one side or all around the pop.

4) The goal was reached when the licker "tasted Tootsie."

at the end of the experiment they found there were 3 groups in which the "lickers" ended up in the were:

"- 75 to 100 licks group. These people tend to be too excited about the experiment or not excited enough. The excited ones were candy fanatics who couldnt' resist biting. The non-excited ones wanted to get the experiment over and dind't want to taste the center anyway.

-125 to 150 licks group. These were the most serious experimenters, keeping meticulous notes and striving to use true scientific principles for the experiment. To them, even a Tootsie Pop was fair game for scientific investigation

-175 to 200 licks group. These people tend to savor candy, let a Life Saver completely melt in their mouth without ever biting it, etc. You know the type. The ones who always have candy long after yours is gone."

although it took experimenters from 75 to 200 licks to reach the center, "standard statistical methods" were used to determine the 142-lick average.

[IxianMace]

It's good to know that there are people out there, conducting useful research that will aid in the advancement of the human race... ::)

[ordos45]

It took me 156 licks...what...I was bored one day okay?! ;D

[slaphapy]

LOL

ya, but don't you think it was strange that college students set up an entire experiment for it?

[Inoculator9]

What wacky world we live in... I performed some of my own research aswell... I determined that these tootsie pops contain tootsie rools. I have only recently discovered this because it always took to many licks ;)