An interesting development occurred during the experimental process that was unreported in all research located on the web. While investigating packs it was discovered that not all packs contain the same number of candies! In fact Skittles were found to range from 55-62 a difference of over 7 skittles! (M&Ms by contrast were more consistent ranging from 56-57 in regular packs to 102-106 in King-size packs).

Two explanations are generated to account for this occurrence. The first is Skittles & M&Ms vary in weight in the individual pieces and the filling machines just add the right amount to fill to the labeled weight. The second explanation is that Skittles and M&Ms are uniform in weight and that certain packs just contain more then others! To test this 30 candies were weighed from each skittles and M&Ms and 5 wrappers from each were weighed - wrappers were weighed individually and were found to have consistent weight.

The findings were as follows:
Individual candies vary in weight.
Skittles range from 1.0064 grams to 1.1121 g with an average weight of 1.062g (± .029g).
M&Ms range from .7776g to .9754g and average .8695g (± .039g)

Packs differ in weight
Skittles range from 62.6g to 66.3g with an average weight of 64.5g
M&Ms range from 92.0g to 94.3g with an average weight of 93.2g

Thus the evidence shows that both explanations are correct - but more importantly it should be noted that to an unaware shopper, selecting the wrong bag of candies can cost you a few skittles per pack! With this long held dark secret of the candy industry exposed, Scientific Ameriken strong urges all to bring scales while shopping to ensure the right bags of candies are selected!

Introduction & Materials and Methods | Results | Discussion | Additional Information