Formal
Report Overlay
Miss JM
Sept, 25, 2007
Density in Nature
A. Purpose: (10 points possible)
You must include the following four paragraphs (minimum) and present
them in this sequence:
Para 1 - What the experiment is about: the objective
The
Greek scientists who speculated about atoms used observations about density to
provide evidence for the existence of atoms.
The purpose of this experiment is understand the evidence which supports
the ideas proposed by the Leucippus and Democritus
Para 2 - Background
information on the experiment from your textbook and one other source. You may need
more than one paragraph here, which is okay
Leucippus
was a Greek scientist who lived perhaps 100 - 150 years after Anaximenes. Although little is known about him, historians
believe that he built on the concepts of Anaximenes
and proposed that all matter is comprised of little units called “atoms.” As a
result, Leucippus is known as the father of atomic theory. The works of his
student, Democritus are much
better preserved.
Democritus used the following illustration to communicate his ideas about
atoms. Think about walking towards a sandy beach. When you are a long way from
the beach, the sand looks like a smooth, yellow blanket. As you get closer to
the beach, you might notice that there are bumps and valleys in the sand, but
the sand still looks solid. When you reach the beach and actually kneel down
and examine the sand, you find that it is not solid at all. Instead, it is
composed of tiny particles called “grains.”
Democritus believed that all matter was similar to sand. Even though a piece of
wood appears to be solid, it is, in fact, made up of little individual particles
which Democritus and his teacher called atoms.
Para 3 - What the experiment hopes to show
The
following experiment will show the kind of evidence Leucippus and Democritus
proposed for their idea.
Para 4 - Why this topic is of interest to science
Understanding
density and the Greeks is interesting because we can predict things about
substances based on density knowledge.
B. Equipment: (5 points possible)
You may copy/paste this from the online textbook, but you must
make the following changes to the textbook list:
1. Provide a complete list of equipment necessary to
conduct the experiment. If you substituted or changed anything, please
list it here also.
2. Equipment should be listed in a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., fashion down the page;
not in the A, B, C, D, etc., fashion used in your textbook.
1. Vegetable oil
2. Water
3. Maple or corn syrup
4. A grape
5. A piece of cork
6. An ice cube
7. A small rock
8. A tall glass
C. Procedure: (5 points possible)
You may copy/paste this from the online textbook, but you must
make the following changes to the textbook list:
1. Provide a complete list of the procedure used. If
you change any, be sure to note it.
2. Procedures should be written in a cookbook fashion
3. Procedures must be numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., down the page,
use a, b, c, d, etc. for sub-items
1. Take the glass and fill it about 1/4 of the
way with the vegetable oil.
2. Add an equal amount of water to the glass.
3. Add an equal amount of maple syrup to the
glass.
4. Look at the glass from the side.
5. Make a sketch of the glass in a laboratory
notebook.
6. Drop the rock, the grape, the ice cube, and
the piece of cork into the glass.
7. Make a sketch of the glass in a laboratory
notebook.
8. Clean up the mess and put everything away.
D. Observations: (10 points possible)
Provide a detailed, objective report of observations -- what you
saw, heard, felt, tasted, smelled, etc -- when the experiment was
performed. (Charts and graphs which provide detail are encouraged. These
MUST be e-mailed as an attachment to me as stated in your assignment
guidelines.) A numbered list of observations works well here: a
well-detailed list may be as many as 10 observations or more long. You
can also provide me with a narrative of your observations in paragraph form if
you desire.
1. The oil was poured into the tall glass.
2. Then the water was poured in to the
oil.
3. After pouring in the water, the oil floated
to the top and the water settled in the bottom.
4. Syrup was then added to the water and
oil.
5. The syrup started to sink immediately and
settled in the bottom of the glass pushing the water into the middle with the
oil on top.
6. When the rock was dropped into the
glass it immediately sank to the bottom in the syrup.
7. The grape was then added. It settled in the middle where the water was
located.
8. The ice cube was then added to the
glass. It floated in the oil.
9. Finally the cork was dropped into the
mixture. It floated on top of the oil.
10. Picture will be e-mail as attachment.
E. Conclusions: (10 points possible)
You must include the following three paragraphs in the following
sequence:
Para 1 - An analysis of the data
Para 2 - Ways to improve the experiment
Para 3 - Ideas the experiment generated for further research
This
experiment shows that atoms exist and also that they exist in greater and
smaller amounts depending upon the form of the matter. The syrup had the most
density because it went through the oil and water and floated to the bottom.
The next most dense of the liquids used was the water which stayed in the
middle. The oil was the least dense and floated on the top. The rock was denser
than any of the liquids and sunk to the bottom of the glass. The grape went
through the oil and stayed in the water.
The density of the grape and water is very similar because the grape
didn't stay at the top of the water or at the bottom of the water, but in the
middle. The least dense of the matter used in the experiment was the cork. When
the cork was dropped in it sank to the middle of the water for a few seconds
and popped back to the surface. The placement of each item in the experiment
shows that matter is made up of atoms in different amounts.
Ideas
to improve the experiment would include being a little less messy when pouring
the liquids.
An
idea for further research for this experiment is to check web sites for how
scientists measure density in real laboratory.
F. Bibliography: (10 points possible)
You must include the following three citations:
Cit 1 - A reference for me as a class lecture or interview note
in proper format as given in examples
Cit 2 - A reference for your textbook in proper format as given in examples
Cit 3 - A reference for your outside resource
Rosenoff, Steven. Class Lecture. September 28, 2007
Wile, Dr. Jay L. Exploring Creation
with General Science.
Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. 2003.
Domain: http://www.density.com
Document: /ultimatepage.html