We filled the tubes with the required solution:
Tubes 1 and 2: 0.4 M sucrose
Tubes 3 and 4: distilled water
Tubes 5 and 6: 1.0 M sucrose
After leaving them for 3 hours we recorded how the mass and the length of the chips had changed and compared these measurements with the initial recordings. The chip that was left in the distilled water was turgid, the chip left in the 0.4 M of sucrose was nearly exactly the same as they felt before and the chip left in the 1.0M of sucrose was very flaccid and floppy.
Safety Precautions
- Wear a lab coat
- Concentrate while cutting with the cork borer and scalpel
- When carrying the scalpel and cork borer have the bladed facing down and away from you
- Do not wave the blades or treat them as if they were part of a game.
Results
To make the results as accurate as possible we made sure that we patted the chips dry before we measured the mass and length of them, we also measure to the most accurate number possible with the apparatus we had. We also took accurate averages to help us understand how the mass and length of the chips had changed.
Conclusion
The results show that in
Tubes 1 and 2 the mass and the length went up
Tubes 3 and 4 the mass and the length of the chips went down slightly
Tubes 5 and 6 the mass and the length went down a lot
The pattern on my graph shows that the mass changed a lot more than the length in this experiment. It also shows that the mass and length in Tubes 1 and 2 went up, whereas the mass in Tubes 3, 4, 5 and 6 went down.
In all the cases both duplicates behaved in roughly the same way, e.g. both Tubes 1 and 2 rose at roughly the same level, but there was quite a large difference in the mass of the chip in Tube 5 in comparison to Tube 6, even though the lengths were roughly the same as each other.
My prediction for Tubes 1 and 2 and Tubes 5 and 6 were correct, but my prediction for Tubes 3 and 4 were wrong, because I assumed that as the solution contained the same concentration of sucrose as the chip, each concentration would cancel each other out, but in fact the chips in Tubes 3 and 4 lost mass and length.
Evaluation
I think this experiment worked quite well, the results were mostly as I expected, although I was wrong about one of my predictions. Probably the hardest part of the experiment was measuring the final lengths of the chip left in the 1.0M of sucrose, because it was very soft and flaccid, and it was hard to measure the length because it could stretch of squash up. To overcome this problem I squashed the flaccid chips into rectangular shapes, this was the most accurate way of measuring the chips’ length.
The results of Tubes 3 and 4 surprised me, as I thought the chips mass and length would stay the same, as it didn’t change in shape in any way, I’m sure there is a scientific explanation of why this happened, but I personally do not know why, with my scientific knowledge.
This problem lessened the accuracy of my results, but in comparison with other experiments, the results seem as reliable and accurate as possible under the conditions. I think the accuracy and reliability of the results could be improved, they might be more accurate, if 3 experiments were made and an average was taken to make sure all the readings were accurate. Also it could have been improved if we had chips that were all the same length, then more accurate comparisons could have been made.
