Photosynthesis Lab Report Essay Example for Free

Photosynthesis Lab Report Essay An experiment to investigate the effects of carbonate concentration in water on the rate of photosynthesis. Aim: The aim is to investigate how increasing carbonate in water can affect the rate of photosynthesis. Introduction: The rate of photosynthesis can be increased or decreased in many different ways. For example, by adding substances like alkaline or salt to the water, you can increase or decrease the acidity or basics, if the water has too much acidity, it can often delay the rate of photosynthesis, often stopping the rate of photosynthesis in the plant, which will possibly lead to killing the plant. Another option is to control the strength of the light by controlling the distance of the light from the plant. If the light is a far distance from the plant, the strength of light for the plant would be very weak, therefore decreasing the rate of photosynthesis. Another alternate but simple way is to change the colored light by comparing different colored ï ¬ lters and their effects to change the rate of photosynthesis. Some colors like red and blue increase the rate of photosynthesis, while colors like yellow and green decrease the rate of photosynthesis. Many people would choose the factors that have just been listed, however there are so many other interesting possible factors when investigating other ways in which you can affect the rate of photosynthesis, Therefor, for this experiment the independent variable chosen is the amount of carbonate in water. Hypothesis: Carbonate is known to increase the rate of photosynthesis when mixed with water, this is because plants inhale carbon dioxide which is what carbonate is made from along with other bases. By diluting carbonate in the water, this increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the water, which then increases the rate of photosynthesis, technically increasing the amount of bubbles within the experiment. However, too much carbonate might slow down the rate of photosynthesis within the plant. This is because, if too much carbonate is added within a small concentration of water with only one small plant, the amount of carbon dioxide released might be too overwhelming for one plant to handle, increasing the rate of photosynthesis to such a high extent can eventually make the plant loose itÊ ¼s energy to photosynthesize. Apparatus/Materials †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Science apron Large Beaker (1000mls) Tap water Long wooden ruler(preferably 30cm) Scissors 12cm of  fresh Elodea plant Large lamp- 60wat bulb Carbonate powder Mettle spoon/spatula Skewer Scale Paper stop watch book or laptop to collect data Method 1. Find a clean, safe and flat working space to do your experiment, leave your workbook or laptop used to collect data on your working space 2. Put on a safety lab apron or coat 3. Grab all the equipment thats on the equipment list and place it on your working space 4. Take a large beaker(1000mls) and carefully fill it with 500mls of tap water 5. Place the large beaker on your working space, bend down at eye level in line with the water and check that the bottom of the waters meniscus curve is touching the ‘500mls’ point 6. If there is too much water, pour out some of the water into the sink, repeatedly doing step 3 to check if the measurement is correct 7. Turn on your lamp and make sure the bulb is 60 wats 8. Take your ruler and make sure the length distance between the lamp and the beaker is 1 cm, and make sure the height distance between the bulb and the beaker is 0 cm 9. Take the Long wooden ruler (preferably 30cm) and some scissors to measure and cut 12cm of fresh Elodea plant 10. Turn on the lamp 11. Get ready your stop watch and your source used to collect data 12. Drop the 12 cm Elodea plant into the water 13. Quickly start the timer when you see the first bubble and record it in your data table for ‘Trail 1’ 14. When watching the plant, watch it from birds eye view(above the beaker) so that you can see the whole plant 15. Let the stop watch run for three minutes(1 minute for each trial) and record how many bubbles there are for each trial for each trial. 16. After finishing the three trials, if the plant floats to the top, push the plant down with a skewer 17. For the next test, rip a section of paper thats about the size of your palm, place it on the scale 18. Turn on the scale 19. Take a spatula and the tub of carbonate powder and spoon some carbonate onto the paper that is sitting on the scale. 20. Keep on adding and taking away till you get 0.5 grams 21. Take the paper with the 0.5 grams of carbonate and pour it inside the water 22. Quickly stir the carbonate with a spatula so that it is fully dissolved into the water equally 23. Start the timer when your done stirring and repeat from step 14 to step 22 24. Once the data is finished collecting, add up the data for the 3 trials  for the first test, divide the sum by 3 to get your average. Do this for a the rest of your tests till you get 5 averages for each of the 5 tests 25. Make a table on ‘Exle’, write test 1, 2 and so on in each cel and the amount of carbonate, then write the averages for each of the tests under 26. Highlight all of this then click whatever graph you think would be best Fair Testing Variables Independent variable Variable details Variables you will change Description †¢ The Mass of carbonate powder increases by 0.5grams within each test †¢ To Count the amount of bubbles released within each trial †¢ Time frame for each trial 60sec †¢ Distance in length and height between the lamp and the beaker is 0cm in height and 1cm in length. †¢ Bulbs wattage-60wats †¢ Mass of water in the beaker for every test is 500mls

A Trip to the Store :: Parables Short Stories Essays

A Trip to the Store There once was a man, a ordinary man named John. John had a family with a wife and three kids, a house with a garage and two cars, very much of an average person was our John. One day John's wife asked him to go to the store to get some bread. As John put on his coat and found the keys to the car he already knew how he would get to the store. He would pull out of the driveway and turn left on Hazelwood Road. He would go past the neighbors on whose land he bowhunted every fall, down the hill, between the swamps and up the next hill to the highway. There he would right onto County Road 20 and cruise down the narrow road that wound past the State Park and the Country Club, probably glance at the lake to see how many ice houses were on the lake and then continue to the intersection of County Road 21. There he would turn left and continue on his way past Ruttger's, where he had often thought of getting a membership, past the boat landing where he liked to put his boat in the lake when he fished walleyes in the summer. Past Koblilka's where he bought his licenses and into town. Shortly after entering town he would coast to a stop at the stop light and wait to turn right. Then a short drive past the myriad's of restaurants and other business's hoping but never getting green lights at the intersections and then finally to turn into the parking lot of the store. Then after making his purchase he would turn around and retrace his route back home. It was a route John had taken many times before and was familiar and comfortable with. The route was one he could use with little thought or attention required on his part. Often instead of thinking about where he was going he would think about other things while he was driving or perhaps just listen to the radio. Sometimes he could make the whole trip there and back without hardly noticing the route itself. Not to say the trips were always easy, sometimes bad weather made the route slippery or heavy traffic made the trip longer then it should be. There was always a chance of having a flat tire or other car problems along the way.

Concentration of enzymes Essay

CONCLUSION: Based on the results obtained from the experiment it can be concluded that the concentration of enzymes influences the rate of a chemical reaction. If enzyme concentration is decreased then the reaction rate will also decrease. If there is sufficient enzyme to bind with substrate then the reaction will proceed fast and if there are insufficient enzymes present then the reaction will slow down DISCUSSION: It was predicted that with the increase of concentration of amylase solution, the time took to break down starch would decrease . This was proved correct , if basing on just these trials . The graph shows how with every single increase of the concentration , the amount of drops until the mixture fails to give a blue-black colour with iodine solution disappear decreased. This continually happened , without any outliers. The trend-line of the graph shows the predicted linear line in the relationship between concentration of amylase solution and the amount of drops until the mixture fails to give a blue-black colour with iodine solution. The amount of drops until the mixture fails to give a blue-black colour with iodine solution with a amylase concentration of 0.1% was found to be 12 drops, which was plotted on the graph. It can be presumed that a higher concentration of amylase is better because it does not take much time to break down the polysaccharide chains and a higher concentration helps to speed up this process. The amylase concentration of 0.1% took only 12 drops until the mixture fails to give a blue-black colour, while the amylase concentration of 0.05% took 21 drops , the amylase concentration of 0.025% took 24 drops and the amylase concentration of 0.01% took 28 drops. Because the purpose of an enzyme is to speed up a reaction, it is logical that amylase would have a higher concentration so it can take less time for it to do its purpose. At higher amylase concentration the time taken until the mixture fails to give a blue-black colour with iodine solution. Despite this, there are sources of error that need to be acknowledge. The trial proved difficult for some, sometimes yielding no results. Another source may be the mixing of the concentration.

Definition and History of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the  linguistic theory that the semantic structure of a language shapes or limits the ways in which a speaker forms conceptions of the world. It came about in 1929. The theory is named after the American anthropological linguist Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and his student Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941). It is also known as the  theory of linguistic relativity, linguistic relativism, linguistic determinism, Whorfian hypothesis, and Whorfianism. History of the Theory The idea that a persons native language determines how he or she thinks was popular among behaviorists of the 1930s and on until cognitive psychology theories came about, beginning in the 1950s and increasing in influence in the 1960s. (Behaviorism taught that behavior is a result of external conditioning and doesnt take feelings, emotions, and thoughts into account as affecting behavior. Cognitive psychology studies mental processes such as creative thinking, problem-solving, and attention.) Author Lera Boroditsky gave some background on ideas about the connections between languages and thought: The question of whether languages shape the way we think goes back centuries; Charlemagne proclaimed that to have a second language is to have a second soul. But the idea went out of favor with scientists when  Noam Chomskys theories of language gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s. Dr. Chomsky proposed that there is a  universal grammar  for all human languages—essentially, that languages dont really differ from one another in significant ways....  (Lost in Translation. The Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2010) The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was taught in courses through the early 1970s and had become widely accepted as truth, but then it fell out of favor. By the 1990s, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was left for dead, author Steven Pinker wrote. The cognitive revolution in psychology, which made the study of pure thought possible, and a number of studies showing meager effects of language on concepts, appeared to kill the concept in the 1990s... But recently it has been resurrected, and neo-Whorfianism is now an active research topic in  psycholinguistics. (The Stuff of Thought. Viking, 2007) Neo-Whorfianism is essentially a weaker version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and says that language  influences  a speakers view of the world but does not inescapably determine it. The Theorys Flaws One big problem with the original Sapir-Whorf hypothesis stems from the idea that if a persons language has no word for a particular concept, then that person would not be able to understand that concept, which is untrue.  Language doesnt necessarily control humans ability to reason or have an emotional response to something or some idea. For example, take the German word  sturmfrei, which essentially is the feeling when you have the whole house to yourself because your parents or roommates are away. Just because English doesnt have a single word for the idea doesnt mean that Americans cant understand the concept. Theres also the chicken and egg problem with the theory. Languages, of course, are human creations, tools we invent and hone to suit our needs,  Boroditsky continued. Simply showing that speakers of different languages think differently doesnt tell us whether its language that shapes thought or the other way around.