Test Information:
	Test Subject: Standard Twinkie Control Subject: Standard Twinkie Test Location: 4th floor, Lovett College, Rice University Start Time: Tuesday, May 2, 1995 19:21 CST Stop Time: Wednesday, May 3, 1995 19:51 CST

Test Description:
	To test the resistivity of a Twinkie, a 110V standard AC household current was run across it. (see Fig. 1)

Observations:
	Before Test: Figure 1:Twinkie attached to standard electrical plug atop standard notebook paper Before the test, both the control and the experimental Twinkies appeared within the range that would be described as a "normal" Twinkie. Immediate Results: Our first attempt to check the resistivity of a Twinkie was an utter failure. After several minutes of watching, nothing happened in either the control or the subject Twinkie. After verifying that power was being supplied to the Twinkie, we concluded that the resistivity of the Twinkie must be so high that not enough current was passing through to cause any noticeable change. A quick measurement with a Digital Multimeter (DMM) confirmed that the resistivity was beyond the DMM's range. Therefore, we broke the Twinkie into smaller pieces. We chose one piece with a significant amount of "creamy filling" and placed the voltage across it (see Fig. 2). Figure 2:Twinkie piece with DMM After a long wait (five to ten minutes) a slight liquification of the filling was apparent. Small bubbles seemed to appear in the top of the filling. After these small changes, nothing else happened. Long Term Results: After the electricity was shut off, we attempted to watch the Twinkie to see if the filling resolidified, but were distracted by a friend of ours trying (successfully) to eat the control. Thus we have no observations for the control or subject Twinkies after the electricity was shut off, and cannot compare them to make any conclusions. Oops. Science can be frustrating. We were so close!

Conclusions:
	This was a very boring experiment, but it got us a lot of weird looks from people passing by. We noted that Twinkies pass almost no current, probably because they are almost totally sugar.

Possible Applications:
	If something has wall current passed across it without even flinching, people take notice. This, above all other tests, shows the Twinkie to be a truly multipurpose material. If you want to electrically isolate a room from static or higher voltage electricity, you can simply line it with Twinkies. If a power line has fallen in the road and you want to move it, you simply wrap the line in Twinkies, and then it is safe for moving...the possibilities are endless!

Last edited June 26, 1999