Science Fair Recount.

Aim: To discover what percentage of an orange is made up of water, then compare another type of citrus fruit (lemons) and find out if they carry similar amounts.

Hypothesis: Since an orange contains so much juice when squeezed, I think it will contain 65% liquid, and I think lemons have the same amount because from my experience when you squeeze them for drink or cooking they both have about the same amount of liquid.

Introduction:

Equipment & Method:

10 oranges and 10 lemons

Kitchen knife

Chopping board

Aluminium foil

Kitchen weighing scales

Trays to place samples on

Something that can take photos and record experiment

Laptop or paper to record data and write up results

Somewhere hot with air flow for dehydration

(food dryer, hot water cupboard, fireplace)

20 labels

Find 10 oranges and 10 lemons. Slice and number each orange and lemon, then weigh each one on tinfoil and record the weight. Dry each one in the hot water cupboard and weigh again to work out what percentage of each fruit is made up of water. Take the average of oranges and lemons.

Results:

RESULTS SUMMARY	My Guess	Actual Result	Difference
Orange - average % of liquid (over 10 samples)	70%	57.2%	-12.8%
Lemon- average % of liquid (over 10 samples)	70%	67.5%	-2.5%

Conclusion: In my hypothesis I guessed that there would be 70% liquid in each fruit. I was pretty close with the lemons, only 2.5% out as the average amount of juice for lemons was 68.5%. The oranges were the surprise at 12.8% less than what I imagined. The average was 57.2% juice. So my hypothesis was not exactly correct in terms of the percentage of each fruit.

Now answer these questions

What did you do well last year? I got a silver badge.

What did you find difficult last year? Getting the lemons and oranges to evaporate.
Two ideas for next term:
1. pH of common beverages
2. Are advertisements louder than news broadcasts?