The goal of this project is to use paper chromatography to see what dyes are used in the coatings of your favorite colored candies. Why do different compounds travel different distances on the piece of paper? How is an Rf value useful? What is chromatography used for? Candy with colored coatings - Skittles and M&M's At least 30 strips of paper - coffee filters or chromatography paper 3cm x 9cm Wide mouth jar Pencil Ruler Tape Water Toothpick Food coloring (red, green and blue)1. Do your background research so you are informed about the above terms, concepts and questions.2. Use a pencil to lightly label the candy color or food coloring that will be located on each strip of paper.3. Draw a pencil line 2cm from the edge of each strip of paper.4. Next you need to extract a little coloring from each candy you want to test. Place the candy on a clean plate in a drop of water. Leave for a minute to allow the dye to dissolve. Remove the candy, then dip a clean toothpick into the now colored drop of water. Locate the caramel dye solution on the chromatography paper by touching the chromatography strip with the toothpick, right in the center of the source line. Allow the stain to dry, then repeat the operation at least three more times. Make sure you have enough dye on the chromatography paper so you can see the dye components as they separate on the paper. Make five separate strips for each candy you want to test.5. Repeat step 4 for each candy color you want to test (at least three different colors).6. It is also necessary to prepare chromatography strips with food dyes. These will be your known compounds, to which you will compare the "unknown" candy colorings. For each food coloring, use the same procedure as in step 4. You will use a drop of food coloring as the source for dipping the clean toothpick.7. Prepare a 1% salt solution for the chromatography solvent. Add 1/8 teaspoon salt to 3 cups water (1 g salt to 1 liter water). Shake or stir until the salt is completely dissolved.8. Pour a small amount of saline solution into the wide-mouthed jar. You will tape the strip to a pencil and rest the pencil on top of the jar so that the strip hangs into the jar.