To determine if the increase of surface area of a potato will increase the amount of gas given off, when combined with hydro peroxide.

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Biology coursework

Aim

To determine if the increase of surface area of a potato will increase the amount of gas given off, when combined with hydro peroxide.

Hypothesis

For this experiment I predicted that as the surface area is increased the amount of gas given off would increase. The reason for this prediction is because as more potato is exposed to the liquid around it there is more potato to react with. If it were whole with only around 4 sides for the hydro peroxide to come into contact with there would be less of a reaction because the inside of the potato can not be reacted with the liquid around it and therefore less gas, but by cutting the potato into more parts this gives more surface area to react with and if the experiment goes to plan this hypothesis should be correct.

Scientific Background

 An enzyme is a large protein molecule that works by reacting with another compound called a substrate. In this case the enzyme is the potato and the substrate is the hydrogen peroxide. Within the enzyme is an active site, this is where the substrate molecule is able to react with the enzyme to produce oxygen. One thing that would affect this experiment is the surface area of the enzyme, the larger the surface area the more active sites which have been made available to react with the substrate.

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    Enzymes are very important because without them some reactions could not take place and we would not be able to survive. An enzyme is a protein and is also known as a catalyst, each enzyme is specific which means that only the right shape and size of a chemical molecule will be able to fit in and be able to let the enzyme help with the reaction. This is also known as lock and key, as because they must be the right shape and size other wise the enzyme cannot take control of the molecule and help it ...

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