Acidic Rain Lab Report

Background: Acidic rain or acid deposition is predominantly caused by air pollution. Acid deposition in the form of gasses and microscopic particles, floating in the air, is called dry deposition. However, wet deposition is in the form of precipitation. As a result of chemicals being released from human productions, great amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are respired into the atmosphere, where rain and gas matter is polluted. Once both sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide come in contact with water or oxygen, acids are formed. Devastation extremes are directly related to the acidic concentration within deposition. High amounts of chemicals in the atmosphere can also result from decaying plants, animals, or natural disasters, such …show more content…
For example in all 3 trials (represented in Tables 1-6), Elodea is able to grow in combined experimental solutions with a pH level ranging from 4-5, however, once the concentrations increase the Elodea shows no signs of growth. Moreover, as concentrations increase Elodea actually decreases in length and begins to lose its color. The relationship between Nitric acid and the growth rate of Elodea in this experiment has a high validity. After calculating the averages of pH levels, experimental Elodea length and the difference in Elodea length (average - original) the r^2 value and standard deviation could be calculated. Calculating the standard deviation measures the amount of variation of the Elodeas growth rate compared to the average pH levels, which validate the negative relationship between the two variables. Calculating the r^2 value will determine how closely data will conform a linear relationship. R^2 values range from 0 to 1, 1 being the perfect fit between the data and line drawn through them. Referring back to Graph 1 the calculated r^2 value is 0.967, which is nearly