The Experiment

This is a picture of our experiment in action.

This is our experiment in action from another angle.

First 20 cups received 200 ml (or 200 g) of distilled water each, which was measured using a 250 ml graduated cylinder.  Next, 5 cups were filled with 5 g of iodized salt each. Another 5 cups were filled with 10 g of salt each. A third group of 5 cups was filled with 15 g of iodized salt each. A digital balance and weighing boat were used to ascertain to mass of the salt samples, and a scoopula was used to accurately transfer the salt from the container to the weighing  dish on the Digital balance. 20 stalks of celery were cut to be equal in length at 17 cm long.  After the basics of the experiment were prepared, the 15 cups containing the salt were poured into the 20 cups containing distilled water, creating a control group with no salt, a group of 5 with 5 g of salt, a group of 5 cups with 10 g of salt each, and a group of 5 cups with 15 g of salt each. When the salt was poured into the water, glass rods stirred the contents of the cups for 2 minutes. Then individual cups were marked with the amount of salt in them and a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to distinguish individuals within a group (Example: 15-1). Finally, 1 stalk of celery was placed in each cup. The celery stalks soaked in the salt solutions for 3 hours to allow the capillary action of the celery stalks. After the allotted 3 hours, the celery stalks were removed and the mass remaining in the cups was measured to determine how much was absorbed.

Meeting Diary

Thursday, Feb 21

We tried to meet this day, but a conflict appeared for O, so the meeting was pushed back because most days someone in the group had something going on during prime meeting times.

Tuesday, Feb 26

This was the first meeting between the four of us and we started discussing ideas that we had come up with over the weekend.  We talked about ideas ranging from exploding potassium chlorate to capillary action in celery. We all agreed that the potassium was too dangerous, but we were a bit split on the other two ideas, F and N leaning towards the celery and A and O going for the water bridge.  We eventually decided on the water thread because we found it to be a cool idea and possible to execute, but we wanted to keep the celery as a back up option. We were slightly worried about coming up with a procedure and having variables we would be able to measure, so we all decided to think over the next couple days and come back with some ideas.

Thursday, Feb 28

We all met again and after talking it over, we decided to change the concentration of the water by adding sodium, sugar, and possibly other undetermined substances to see if this would affect the distance and strength of the bridge.  We went to the library and did a little bit of research on the experiment and found that we would need to use deionized water, which presented itself as a bit of a problem because the chemistry lab did not have a supply of this nor did we know enough about buying it ourselves.  We did find out that it might be a bit difficult to explain the experiment, as even professional scientists weren't completely sure about why the water reacted the way that it did.  We started to worry when we realized how much electricity we would need, although the lab did have materials for generating that energy.  We got nervous about deliberately sending waves of electricity through water, notoriously a conductor of said electricity.  We also weren't sure how we could measure the length as well as the strength of the bridge accurately, which was a bit of a problem.  As we ran into more and more road blocks, we thought that maybe we could test out the experiment before we put it into action, but we were told that wasn't allowed.  Finally we decided that it as cool as the experiment was, it would be a safer bet to revert to the celery plan because we knew that one would work without any risks of electrocuting ourselves.

Friday, Mar 1

Having settled on experimenting with celery, we began discussing how we wanted to vary it up.  We eventually decided on different concentrations of sodium and investigating how that that effected the rate of capillary action within the celery.  We also brought up the idea of messing with the atmosphere surrounding the celery or playing with the temperature of the water.  We all agreed celery was a better, though slightly more disappointing, idea than the water bridge and that maybe sometime we could all just do it for fun and to see it really happen in front of our eyes.  We talked about our procedure slightly, and clarified who would bring what, and then we left, hoping everything would go smoothly the next day.

Celery

We have settled on studying the capillary action of water in relation to salinity. Not quite as interesting as the water bridge, but simplicity is the better course by far. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Ideas on Film

Here are some of the ideas we had thrown around before we settled on the water thread.

This reaction occurs because of the carbon in the gummy bear, so theoretically the carbon in the celery should be just as effective. We decided against it was to dangerous.

Here is the water bridge:

We thought this was very interesting and wanted to explore it more. It's bizarre and we wanted to know how this is scientifically possible.