Biology Investigation Report- Rudy

Question: Does the surface area of a jelly cube affect how long it takes to discolor.
Hypothesis: We predicted that the smaller the SA to volume ration, the longer it will take for
the indicator (Phenolphthalein) to discolor.
Variables:
Independent: Size of the Jelly Cubes
Dependent: The rate at which it takes the Jelly cube to discolor
Apparatus:
3X (3 By 3 By cm) Jelly cubes
Plastic Spoon
30 cm Ruler
Stopwatch
Hydrochloric Acid (1 mole)
3 beakers
Knife
Cutting Board
Method:
1) Using a knife, carefully slice the Jelly cubes on the cutting board.
a) Cut one cube in 4 equally sized pieces.
b) Cut the second cube into 8 equally sized pieces.
c) Cut the third cube into 16 equally sized pieces.
2) Fill each of the two beakers with 150 ml of HCL.
3) Place each of the equally sized cubes into their assigned beakers.
4) At the same time start the stop watch.
5) Note down the amount of time it took for each of the beakers to have all their jelly cubes
discolored.
Results:

Size of Cube (mm)

15x15x30 Cube

15x15x15 Cube

15x15x7.5 Cube

Time Taken(Secs)

924

466

187

SA:Volume Ratio
(mm)

3:1

2.5:1

3.4



Conclusion:
To conclude we felt that the rate it took for the jelly cubes to discolor was affected by the
surface area to volume ratio. We cut our cubes into many different equally sized pieces with
different SA to determine how rate is affected by this change. It turned out that the bigger the
SA of a jelly cube, the more time it took for the Phenolphthalein to discolor, thus meaning
that the rate was faster as the surface area to volume ratio decreased. Although we felt we
came to the right conclusion, we still had a variation in the SA:V ratios of the first and last
"cubes". This error had occurred because the cubes were actually cuboids, and thus the SA:V
ratio came out larger than the ratio of a normal cube.