weather radar: Firewater Friday . . . How many licks

To the utter dismay and complete annoyance of my family, as a child I could recite and mimic every commercial on TV. Mind you, I grew up in the sticks. We didn’t have cable or satellite; we got two channels from our antennae, so there weren’t a whole lot to memorize. The point is, it must have been maddening to have an irritating kid singing along to television advertisements.

One the commercials I can still recite is: “Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?”

So, how many licks does it take? “Uh-one...uh-two...uh-three......uh-three.” According to Tootsie Roll Manufacturing: .: "We've been asking the question since 1970. Many have tried to lick their way to the center of the Tootsie Pop, and many have failed -- for they couldn't help but bite. But for those proud few who do make it to the center, and manage to keep count of how many licks it takes, we hold a special place in our hearts."

According to Chuck Norris, if you roundhouse kick the tootsie properly it will lick itself, so zero licks!

Believe it or not there have been actual scientific studies done to answer this profound and enigmatic question.

What you have to do is measure the amount of saliva you produce per lick, acidity of saliva, coarseness of the tongue, how much amylase (enzymes), measure the volume of the Tootsie Pop, find the amount each lick your saliva takes away from the pop, and divide that much by the total volume of the Tootsie Pop.

Obviously, it’s a whole big thing. I’d rather just lick the lollypop.

The world may never know!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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If you would like to conduct your own study you will need one Tootsie Pop and one person.

Procedure

Unwrap the Tootsie Roll Pop
Lick* side** of the Tootsie Roll Pop
Rotate to other side** of Tootsie Roll Pop
Repeat from Step 1 until center is reached***
Record results

* - A lick is when your tongue is run across the Tootsie Rolls Pop; sucking is strictly prohibitted in this experiment. The tongue need not, necessarily, be retracted into the mouth between individual licks, though it has been found to be more pleasant for the experimenter with frequent tongue retraction.

** - Tootsie Roll Pops are shaped in a roughly saucer shape; the broader parts are being referred to as sides

*** - The center is determined to have been reached when licking yields the texture of Tootsie Roll, flavor of Tootsie Roll and the discoloration of Tootsie Roll is visible with reference to the candy portion. This eliminates false positives as a result of bubbles in the candy, oddly textured regions and seeing chocolate through candy

See this study for recorded research results

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