Gatorade Spectroscopy

AP Chemistry

Sarah Hutfilz

10/06/15

Table of Contents
Gatorade Spectroscopy- 10/06/15

Title Page.1
Table of Contents.2
Problem Statement...3
Hypothesis3
Materials...3
Procedure..3
Data Table.4
Pre-Lab Questions4
Conclusion4
Discussion/Reflection5

Problem Statement
Independent Variable: amount of dye and amount of water in each sample
Dependent Variable: percent of light absorbed
Constants: same dye, same water, same colorimeter, same lab quest
Control: the absorbance of light with a pure water sample
Problem: How can light be used to study color and determine concentrations of chemical
species in solutions?
Purpose: to discover the relationship between transmittance and concentration and
ultimately the relationship between transmittance, absorbance, and concentration of a solution
Hypothesis
If I keep diluting the solution with more water, then the percent of light absorbed will
decrease because there isnt as much dye to absorb the light.
Materials
o
o
o
o
o
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Colorimeter
LabQuest
Stock solution
Distilled water
Graduated cylinder
Pipette
Rectangular containers to place in colorimeter
Test tube
Dropper

Procedure
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Acquire a colorimeter and a LabQuest

Plug the LabQuest into the wall and plug the colorimeter into the LabQuest
Turn on both
Assign yourself a concentration of dye to water, which was 8mL of dye to 2mL of water
for me and my group
Measure out 8mL of dye and pour it into the test tube, using the dropper, if necessary
Measure out 2mL of distilled water and pour that into the same test tube that contains the
dye, using the dropper, if necessary
Mix/ swirl the contents in the test tube
Pour enough of the mixture into the rectangular container to fill it completely and place
the cap on it
3

9 Pour distilled water into another container and place the cap on that container as well
10 Place the container with the pure water in it in the colorimeter and press the button that
says calibrate NOTE: the reading on the LabQuest should be 0.000 for the water
11 Once the colorimeter has finished calibrating, place the container containing the dye in
the colorimeter and record the absorbance of light on the data table
12 Clean out all containers and tubes you used with distilled water and put away all
equipment in its proper place
Data Table
Solution
Dilution
Ratio
Molar
Concentrat
ion
Measured
Absorbanc
e
Absorbanc
e as a
Decimal

1
10mL/0
mL
520 M

2
8mL/2
mL
416 M

3
6mL/4
mL
312 M

4
4mL/6
mL
208 M

5
3mL/7
mL
156 M

6
2mL/8
mL
104 M

7
1mL/9
mL
52 M

8
0mL/10
mL
0 M

98.2%

81.3%

75.3%

40.6%

33.0%

18.7%

11.3%

0.00%

0.982

0.813

0.753

0.406

0.330

0.187

0.113

0.000

Absorbance of Gatorade: 0.377 (37.7%)

Pre-Lab Questions
There are no pre-lab questions for this lab
Conclusion
Results
The measured absorbance of 8mL of solution to 2mL of water was 0.813, which is
81.3%. So, what this number means is that this solution absorbed 81.3% of the light being
transmitted through the solution. We experienced a problem when we first tried to measure the
absorbance. At first, our data was not following the graph; it was an outlier. We kept remeasuring and retesting the solution, but it was still an outlier. So, we started from scratch, where
we recalibrated the colorimeter and then we measured the solution again and this time, the data
followed the graph.
Error Analysis

There were no errors in this experiment except for the one described above, but that was
a human error instead of an experimental one.
Next Steps
If I could do anything differently, I would make sure that I calibrate the machine before I
start measuring the solution. That way, I could have avoided the whole thing described in the
first paragraph.
Discussion/Reflection
We are learning about the concentrations of things to determine chemical structures. This
relates to medicine, where doctors have to determine the concentrations of medicines in order to
know which concentration would be effective but wont kill the patient or make their condition
worse.