Science Investigation Sheet
Name – Dylan Steel
Date - 08/04/12
Investigation sheet 1
We are finding out about: - How do substances dissolve in water?
This is what we will do: - Put some water in a small container and let it settle
for 30 seconds then add a drop of food colouring and observe the reaction.
This is a picture of what we need: -
We found out that: - The food colouring settled in the middle and did not
dissolve. It swirled a little but did not show any other movement.
Name – Dylan Steel
Date – 08/04/12
Investigation sheet 2
We want to find out: - How does sugar and colour dissolve in water?
We will need: -
First we will – Measure out 50 ml of water into the container and let it settle
for 30 seconds
Next we will - Place a Smartie in the bowl
Then we will – Observe what happens
This is what we think will happen: - The smartie will go soggy and the colour
will maybe change the colour of the water a little
After the investigation
We can record what happened:-
We found out that:- The colour of the Smartie dissolved off the Smartie and
pushed out to the edge of the bowl
We think this happened because:- The colour of the Smartie was mixing with
the water and as more colour dissolved off the smartie the further it spread
out
Name- Dylan Steel
Date – 08/04/12
Investigation sheet 3
We want to find out – What will happen if we add more Smarties to the water?
To make our test fair we are keeping these things the same - The amount of
water, the type of Smarties, the container, the water source and temperature,
the time for the water to settle
We are only changing – The number of Smarties added to the bowl
To carry out our test we will need:-
First we will – Measure out 50 ml of water into the container and allow it to
settle for 30 seconds.
Then we will – Add 4 smarties to the bowl and observe what happens
This is what we think will happen:- The colours will push out in all 4 directions
and mix together changing the water colour to a brown or dark colour when
they all mix together.
We found out that:-
We think this is because:- The colours cant mix together because they are
opposing forces similar to magnets
Name Dylan Steel
Date 08/04/12
Investigation sheet 4
We want to find out – Will adding more Smarties to the container will cause
the colours to mix?
So that our investigation is a fair test we are keeping these things the same –
The amount of water, the temperature of the water, the water source, the
container, the brand of Smarties
We will only change – The number of Smarties added to the water
We will need this equipment and these resources:1. 50 ml of water
2. A small container
3. 6 Smarties
This is what we will do:- We let the water settle in the container for 30
seconds, then dropped the six Smarties in regular intervals around the edge of
the dish
We predict that – There will be too many Smarties in the dish for the colours to
stay separated and the will mix together
We can record our results by using
We found out that:- The colours still did not mix and created a colourful wheel
still staying in their own little quadrant
The explanation for this is:-The colour spreads out and away from each
chocolate in a semi-circular looking fashion. Where they meet, the colourful
currents appear to abruptly stop dead in their tracks.
The reason for the sudden pause in proceedings is, again, all to do with density
gradients. Initially, the currents spread in every direction. But at the junction
where any two colours meet, the concentration of sugar (that is, the density of
the solution) is equal on both sides. With no difference in the density of the
solution on either side, the density-driven current stops.
It doesn't really stop though. More sugar keeps dissolving away from each
chocolate and piling up at these junctions but you don't notice because sugar
dissolves clear. If you carefully measured the sugar concentration on either
side of a junction, you would see it rising until all the sugar has dissolved.
References
ABC Science. (2012, April 01). Mindboggling chocolate experiment. Retrieved from ABC Science - The
Surfing Scientest: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/03/20/3459556.htm