Two weeks ago, Soundings XVI performed Lab Experiment Number Two. Lab Experiment Number Two was similar to the previous, Lab Experiment Number One. The prompt was to compare the results of pennies dropped in water, versus the result of pennies being dropped into milk, both at 100 mL. The main purpose of this lab was to further discuss more scientific parts of this lab, such as the surface tension when the cylinder was close to overflowing for both the milk and water. Before performing this lab, my group and I created a hypothesis to reflect upon and to state what we believed would dictate the results.
The hypothesis stated that if we filled the dropped pennies into the graduated cylinder at 100 mL of milk, then the amount would be greater than that of the water. This hypothesis was proven wrong. Instead, …show more content…
For this lab there were two debriefs, in these debriefs we, as a class, discussed the topic of surface tension, meniscus, and how they affected our experiment. The meniscus, also stated before, gave the students a measuring problem in the beginning, when filling up the graduated cylinder to 100 mL. In Lab Debrief Part One, we discussed this situation and later found out that the meniscus was a curve of the liquid and could be either convex or concave. An observation in the experiment was when the pennies were displacing both water and milk, which created convex meniscus; this was the effect of surface tension. Surface tension was a large aspect of our experiment because this was what made more pennies fit into the water rather than the milk. Surface tension is defined as the cohesive force between particles which ties them together, and creates an elastic bubble on top of the graduated cylinder. In the end, the water had a stronger amount surface tension, therefore, it was able to hold five to ten more pennies then the