On Thursday and Friday we had an amazingly exciting lab on sugar content. What we had set about to do was test substances to see how adding sugar affects the weight of them, and see if with the data collected, we could accurately predict how much sugar is contained in other mixtures. It was not the most exciting lab but it does show how research and repeated methods can lead to accurate hypotheses. What we did was measure out water and record it's weight when we added various amounts of sugar. From 2g to 15g, and using the formula 100(Mass sugar/Mass solution), we found what percent of the mass was sugar. Using this new information we were plugged in into an excel graph to see the pattern and acquire a equation for later. Next we chose three different beverages and repeated the process. The three we used for this experiment were: root beer, ginger ale, and diet ginger ale (all courtesy of Trader Joes). Just thinking abut the three sodas, we expected root bear to have the most sugar, followed by ginger ale, and lastly diet ginger ale. After doing the measurements, we plugged our data into our equation y = 1.8148x - 1.7918, and we were able to find the mass% of sugar quite easily. Upon doing so, we were surprised to find that ginger ale was much more sugary than root beer (diet of course was still last with 0.49%). Our experiment did not exactly follow our hypotheses but we were able to predict the amount of sugar in our beverages based on previous repeated data. Nothing much was to come as a result from the lab and therefore I feel like the lab went well in the sense that we completed what we had set out to do. I had the role of recording data and working out the other numbers through our formulas. I feel like I did contribute greatly to get the results that we did, because without the math then we couldn't have done the graph and equation to represent our data and help move us along to part two. I worked with Josh and Mira for this lab, they're are both great partners and I would gladly work with them again on another experiment. Although we did finish what needed to get done I feel like a lot of the work rested on me. With the information gathered I'm sure we could continue this experiment not only with other beverages, but maybe even doing different equations to predict other things such as the amount of an element present in a solution or the like. Somethings I took away from this was that with the right information you can easily prove and disprove anything. When using repeated experiments, it's very easy to trace a pattern and accurately predict the solution to your question. This also showed me how the periodic table was formed as scientists most likely did countless experiments with the elements and found those patterns that helped them predict what the missing spaces were. |
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AuthorHello there! I am a sophomore here at High Tech High, and on this blog I will be making weekly posts to what I've been doing in my 10th grade chemistry class! So check back often! Archives
May 2015
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