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Introduction

Aim To find out if the surface area of a potato effects how many oxygen bubbles are produced when the potato is covered in Hydrogen Peroxide. Apparatus & Diagram Delivery tube Measuring cylinder Boss & Clamp Boiling tube Stand Beaker Apparatus Test tube Stopwatch Ruler Beaker Measuring cylinder Safety goggles Scalpel Plastic tile Potato Hydrogen Peroxide Variable to Alter The variable I will alter in my experiment, is the surface area of the potato. This is because; by doing this I will answer my aim and also supply myself with the evidence needed to find out if the potato suface area effects the amount of oxygen produced by the enzyme. The amount of peroxide covering the potato. Different surface areas will need different amounts of peroxide covering them. The room temperature will also alter because I shall do the experiments over a certain number of days. ...read more.

Middle

I shall also place test tubes in a test tube rack carefully so that they do not break because they are easily broken. Method First of all I shall take safety precautions and wear goggles and tuck my tie in. Then I shall set the apparatus up shown in the diagram below. Measuring cylinder Clamp Boiling tube with Beaker peroxide and a potato I shall choose a healthy looking potato so that the experiment shall work properly. Then I shall get a little bottle of hydrogen peroxide. I shall cut a potato into the different cubic measurements listed below and place each potato into hydrogen peroxide for 3 minutes. I have chosen 3 minutes because I feel this is a sensible time from by knowledge from doing my preliminary that 5 minutes is too long and too time consuming. I will do the experiment with 4 different surface areas each 3 times because I feel this is a sensible amount of time to get accurate results. ...read more.

Conclusion

The activation energy should stay at the amount it is changed to by the biological enzymes. The surface area in this reaction should not change the activation energy, however, because no energy is being added in this experiment. Explanation Enzyme Substrate This has an active site. Enzyme Substrate The substrate no longer fits the active site. Preliminary Work I did a brief experiment in order to receive a more knowledgeable view over the final task. The changes that had to be enforced were that the experiment was done in 3 minutes instead of 5 minutes because 5 minutes was too time consuming and also 3 minutes would work just as well. The usefulness of the preliminary work was that I got the idea of using instruments like a measuring cylinder for example, with more accuracy by measuring below the meniscus. The main advantage of the preliminary experiment, was that in my method I stated that one should use a 100ml measuring cylinder for the retrieval of oxygen, but this test proved that 200ml beaker worked better for the experiment. ...read more.

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