Pepper Soap Investigation
Question: Why do some objects move out of the way in a bowl if you put your finger with soap on it?
Name: Pranit Srinivasan and Jetson Ma
School: Meadow Park Elementary
Teacher: Jeanette Kumamoto
Abstract
Write the Abstract last, after all your results and analysis are finished.
The Abstract is a summary of your project, (250 words or less) and must include:
We are investigating why hydrophobics move away from soap.Our hypothesis is that if pepper, a hydrophobic, moves away from the soap, then all other hydrophobic things should move away from soap because all hydrophobics should do the same because they should also have the same tension with the water which breaks when soap is applied. We also think that they will move away from the soap finger because almost all objects have germs. Then we got a bowl, filled it up with water, and began our testing. We tried many hydrophobics, including oil, and carrom board powder. We also tried soap solutions with pepper, and substituted soap with cremo-post shaving balm and shampoo. Out of the times we tested, we were 89.(3)% correct. In conclusion, our research helped formulate the hypothesis by explaining how the science worked. Also, the chance of error was 10.(6)%. We learned that the objects that move away from the soap move away because they are hydrophobic which creates tension between the object and the water which is broken when you touch the water with soap and that causes it to move toward the edges of the bowl.
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Background Research
Brief summary of the background research and information used to answer your question. C
If this is a continuation project, a brief summary of your prior work is appropriate here. Be sure to
distinguish your previous work from this year’s project. I
Provide citations for all resources used throughout the project on Slide 12 References, including other scientists’ work or projects that may have served as inspiration for your project. C
{[Jetson’s Overview]} Soap breaks the water's surface tension (force that causes water molecules to stick together) and the soap molecules push the water molecules away. Then the water pulls the pepper with it to the edges of the bowl.
“Soap is able to break down the surface tension of water—that’s part of what makes soap a good cleaner. As the soap moves into the water, and the surface tension changes, the pepper no longer floats on top. But the water molecules still want to keep the surface tension going, so they pull back away from the soap, and carry the pepper along with them.” -https://www.education.com/activity/article/pepper-and-soap-experiment/-
Water has droplets that team up to create surface tension. Imagine a group of water droplets coming together and forming a barrier. Soap is able to break down this barrier, which makes the droplets upset. So, the droplets run from the soap, carrying the pepper with them! -https://www.stemchef.com/blog/pepper-and-soap-
Hypothesis
If pepper, a hydrophobic, moves away from the soap, then all other hydrophobic things should move away from soap because all hydrophobics should do the same because they should also have the same tension with the water which breaks when soap is applied. We also think that they will move away from the soap finger because almost all objects have germs on them.
Materials
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Be specific: size, quantity, amount (concentrations, doses, etc), materials/chemicals, equipment, etc.
Example:
3% hydrogen peroxide
3mL plastic pipettes (5)
20mL test tubes (10)
water
Materials:
Procedures
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Provide specific information: size, shape, quantities, materials, experimental set-up, etc.
Results - Data/Observations
Include raw data collected and any observations (quantitative and qualitative) while testing your Hypothesis, that haven’t been displayed in your uploaded Lab Notebook1
Include charts and graphs of your raw data (results) including labels.
Use appropriate statistics (average, % error, and a variety of statistical tests) to analyze and share your results
When we used Oil(with hand soap), the Oil moved away slowly to the edges of the bowl (and slowly came back)
When we used Carrom board Powder(with hand soap), the powder moved away quickly to the edges of the bowl (and then sank)
When we used glitter(with hand soap), however, a few pieces of glitter bolted to the edges of the bowl and most of it stayed it its place.
But, when we used shampoo (with pepper), the pepper moved about 2.5 inches to the sides of the bowl
Although when we used the after CREMO post-shaving balm(with pepper), the pepper moved 2 inches to the sides of the bowl.
In total (for the hydrophobics), we were about 78.(6)% correct out of the 3 times we tested. (because we were partially right)
In total (for the soap type substances ), we were 100% correct out of the 2 times we tested.
In total (for all), we were 89.(3) correct out of the 5 times we tested.
Bowl is about six inches going across
OTHER…
We tried to use shampoo instead of soap with pepper but we accidentally dropped the pepper shaker and all the pepper got wet and we got no more dry pepper.
Conclusion/Results Discussion
Use these questions to discuss your conclusions:
How did your research help you formulate your Hypothesis and design a way to test it?: Our research helped because it was how we found out about the tension between a hydrophobic and water.
What was the answer to your Question? Was your Hypothesis supported by the data?: Yes our hypothesis was supported by the data because the reason hydrophobics move away from the soap is because of their tension.
Did your data verify or not verify your Hypothesis and answer your Question?:Our data verified our hypothesis partially because we predicted that ALL hydrophobics would move away from the soap but one of them didn’t.
Did your project turn out as you expected?: No, our project did not turn out how we expected it to because +we thought the majority of our tests would fail but it went the other way around with only one unsuccessful test.
What did you learn from doing this project: We learned that objects like pepper move away from soap because the soap breaks the tension between the hydrophobic
object and water.
Summarize and Analyze your data including patterns, trends, errors and variables that could have influenced the results: A trend was that all the soap substances worked also a unique thing happened with the oil when we used the soap it slowly but steadily moved toward the edges but th immediately started coming back at the same pace.
With the data collected, use appropriate statistics (average, % error, and a variety of statistical tests) to analyze your results: The average success rate was 86.7% only one of the objects tried didn’t a lot so the project was mostly a success.
Were you able to scientifically explain why you got the results that you did?: No, we are not able explain how we got each individual result but for all we are able to say that they moved away because the soap disrupted the tension between each object and the water.
Our research helped us formulate our hypothesis by explaining how the science worked.
The answer to our question was soap reduces the surface tension of the water, which causes the water molecules on the surface to push away from that point, taking the pepper with them. Soap is a surfactant with two opposite sides: One side is attracted to water and repels oils, the other side is attracted to oil and repels water. Germs are attracted to the oil in our hands. Water alone won’t remove it because water and oil repel each other. The soap carries oil and water, so it removes the germ filled oils on our hands and washes them away with water.
Our hypothesis was supported by the data
Our project didn’t turn out as we expected
We learned that the objects that move away from the soap move away because they are hydrophobic which creates tension between the object and the water which is broken when you touch the water with soap and that causes it to move toward the edges of the bowl
In total, we tested 5 things and the chance of error was 37.5%
Yes, we were able to scientifically explain why we got the results that we did because we found out that tension makes the object move away to the edges of the bowl
Application/Future Research
Our results could be applied to everyday life by showing how soap helps remove germs and other unwanted bacteria.
Our parents would be interested to know the results of our project.
Our results could be applied to similar questions or studies by sharing our findings online.
No, we don’t have further research questions or variables to test as a result of this project.
There are any next steps/new ideas we’d like to investigate.
Next time, we could’ve tested more materials with different variations and we could’ve started earlier.
References Cited
List all citations and resources (print and electronic, including personal interviews) in alphabetical order using the APA Citation Guide.
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Citation Requirements:
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12
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