Let's let the owl explain:
And thus was the challenge issued. You can't let a statement like that go unanswered, can you? I set out with my daughter to do a trial run, but her result -- 614 licks -- is merely one lonely, unscientific anecdote. (I didn't manage to actually count at all. Oops!)
There have been a few valiant efforts to find the truth of this matter, but none have achieved anything like a conclusive sample size, and have omitted factors that might be key to finding your PTPLE (Personal Tootsie Pop Licking Estimate), such as tongue width and Tootsie Pop flavor. Even if I were to lobby every friend I have to conduct this experiment, few would follow through, and I would wind up with paltry tens of data points, if that.
But we live in an era of phenomenal crowdsourcing and collaboration. There is no reason we can't all get together to create a conclusive formula establishing the PTPLE. And so, one and all, I invite you to conduct your own one-person Tootsie Pop experiments and record the results in our Google Spreadsheet.
Soon, thanks to all of you, the world will finally know... how many licks DOES it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
There *is* only one size of Tootsie Pop, right?
Posted by: Celina | November 25, 2008 at 16:16
Ah, the memories..."One, two, tha-ree *crunch* Three."
Posted by: John Evans | November 25, 2008 at 17:18
It presents the interesting problem of defining what constitutes a "lick." I could go on in all earnestness, but having typed out half of it, I'm afraid the potential for double-entendre is just too strong.
Suffice it to say, exactly how much of one's mouth can be on the Tootsie Pop at one time, and for how long, to be considered a "lick?" Because people consume their Tootsie Pops in very non-standard ways.
Posted by: Tiff | November 25, 2008 at 19:23
For our purposes, I think we're sticking with single licks only, as demonstrated by the owl: External to the mouth, tongue motion vertical and upward only, and constrained to a single area of the Tootsie Pop in question.
Sucking is a different method of consumption, and would be best measured in terms of minutes-to-center.
Posted by: Andrea | November 30, 2008 at 10:11
what is your hypothesis of the science behind it
Posted by: Latrell Sanders | November 03, 2009 at 05:22