• Question: I know its random- but my family were soooooo fustrated when they didn't get the answer. When jelly is heated does it dissolve or melt? And heres a question what came first the chicken or the egg? lol Alice - friends with Joanna

    Asked by alicejoanna97 to Gioia, Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 19 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by zeddyzac.
    • Photo: Joanna Watson

      Joanna Watson answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi there Alice, Joanna and zeddyzac.

      If you heat the jelly on its own it must melt. You need to have water (or another liquid) for something to dissolve. If the jelly is in water though, I don’t know – I would assume that it dissolves, but I hope one of the other scientists knows.

      One of the scientists in the evolution zone says that because eggs evolved before birds it must be the egg – if you think about it, dinosaurs had eggs too. Now if you ask which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg, I don’t think I’d be able to answer – that’s far too difficult!

    • Photo: Mariam Orme

      Mariam Orme answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      Jelly: If you heat up jelly and it becomes liquid, it’s melting. But if you’re talking about when you add hot water to concentrated jelly blocks, in that case the jelly is dissolving into the water. Hope that clears things up for your family!
      Chicken and egg: my boring scientific answer is that egg-laying chickens evolved from a more basic lifeform… so probably neither came first, they evolved together.

    • Photo: Leo Garcia

      Leo Garcia answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      ‘Dissolve’ means when once chemical mixes with a solvent, to make a solution. So jelly, when heated, if it turns to liquid, it is melting rather than ‘dissolving’, because there is nothing for it to dissolve into.

      In terms of your egg question, it is solved by realising that chickens evolved from chicken-like ancestors, in a very slow, gradual process over a long period of time. As such, where we say that the first chicken occurred is reasonably vague – as there are several points between one species becoming separate from another where the two species can still interbreed.

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      Hi Joanna,
      For the jelly question, the answer is melting. Melting happens when you apply heat, and solvation happens when you apply a solvent.

      As for the chicken and the egg, the egg came first. All birds, including chickens, evolved from dinosaurs and the dinosaurs already had eggs.

      Hope this helps your family,
      Iain

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