Lesson 6: Experiments 26 July 2010

Yesterday, we gathered in the Chemistry Lab for two experiments. We have 5 facilitators, who are from Temasek Junior College, out of which 3 are our seniors from the SPARKS programme. They guided us throught the 2 experiments.
1st experiment:
We were to determine the presence or absence of sugar in a sample of Coca Cola and Coca Cola Zero. We were given two cups each, X and Y. We were to drink each cup and predict which cup contains Coca Cola and which cup contains Coca Cola Zero. I predicted that Sample X is Coca Cola Zero while Sample Y is Coca Cola. WE conducted an experiemnt which involved heating and the pouring of the Benedict Solution. After several minutes of boiling, the colour of Sample X did not change while the colour of Sample Y changed, turning from brown to reddish orange. My predictions turned out to be right!! I've learnt that Coca Cola Zero contains less sugar than Coca Cola, but still, it is unhealthy for us.

2nd experiment:
We were to compare the calorie content in healthy and unhealthy food. We were given 3 samples:
Peanuts
Cereal
Tidbits (Roller Coaster)
First, we have to record the initial temperature of water in the test tube. Then we were to burn the peanuts first, before placing the burning peanut in an evaporating dish under the test tube. We then recorded down the highest temperature reached. We were to repaeat these steps for cereal and tidbits. Due to time constraint, I was unable to complete the experiment on cereals. The facilitators told us that the temperature change in water for peanuts and tidbits should have a higher change than cereal as they are more unhealthy than creals.
From this experiment, I've learnt that having a higher change in the tempeature of water means that the food is burning off lots of oil which determines that the food is unhealthy. I think that these experiments are really interesting ways to find out about healthy and unhealthy food. I do hope that we are able to conduct such experiments in the future!!