Photosynthesis Experiment

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Purpose:
Experiment #1: The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the effects of baking soda and light intensity on the rate of photosynthesis of green spinach leave through the observation of floating disk.
Experiment #2: The purpose of this experiment is to test which colors work best and float while under a different light source.
Experiment #3: The purpose of this experiment to test the chromatography of plant pigments the alcohol test strip test will be used.
Procedure:
Experiment 1: Oxygen Production
I added ½ tablespoon of baking soda to 4 cups of water. I added a small drop of liquid soap to the water and stirred to mix. I used the end of a straw and cut out 20 circles of spinach leaves. I pulled the plunger completely out of the syringe and put the leaf circles into the syringe. Next I pushed the plunger back in. I used the syringe to suck up the baking soda water until the syringe was about ¼ full of liquid. I placed my finger over the end of the syringe and pulled back on the plunger as far as I could without pulling the plunger out. I repeated this step three times. All the leaf circles sunk to the bottom of the liquid. I placed the spinach into a clear glass with about 2 inches of baking soda solution. I blocked out all light. I set the lamp with a compact florescent light bulb. I placed the glass in front of the lamp. I counted the number of circles that floated after each minute for 20 minutes (positive control). I created a negative control by not placing compact florescent light bulb and not placing the glass in front of the lamp. I counted the number of circles that are floating. I repeated the experiment with fresh circles and used regular water plus soap for all steps instead of baking soda and soa...

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... has more CO2 than the negative controls. There will be more spinach circles in the red food coloring than the green and blue food coloring. My hypothesis was supported for both experiments.
To continue the experiment further I can use a different source of light to test the intensity of light. For the food coloring experiment, I could use a different food color such as yellow or orange to test.

Experiment 3:
The red pigment and the green pigment will follow the alcohol higher on the coffee filter than the yellow pigment. There will only be chlorophyll left in the spinach leaf, the yellow leaf will contain chlorophyll and xanthophyll & the red leaf will contain chlorophyll, carotene, and xanthophyll. My hypothesis was supported.
To continue this experiment further, I could use frozen chopped spinach leaves, or substitute the rubbing alcohol for methyl alcohol.

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