Sour Patch Kids are Full of Protons

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Sharon Neufeldt

Take a look at the ingredient list on the back of a Sour Patch Kids bag the next time you go to the movie theater, and you probably won’t be surprised to discover that this gummy candy contains a lot of chemicals. With such a complex ingredient list, you might be surprised to learn that the key feature of these snacks – their sourness – is actually quite simple. The sourness comes not from one chemical, not even one element, but from just one tiny little fraction of an atom.

Yup, protons are sour.

Protons are fractions of hydrogen atoms. When a hydrogen atom loses its electron, all that remains is a naked proton, often designated H+ because protons are positively charged.