Science Inquiry Project Dilution Vs. Taste : Testing the Taste Threshold

1. Science Inquiry ProjectDilution Vs. Taste :Testing the Taste Threshold Alex Becker Pd. 3

2. I. Introduction • In my experiment I intend to research how diluting a substance affects someone's ability to taste it. I will start with 10% dilutions of sugar, salt and vinegar. I will then dilute each substance by a factor of ten each time until my test subjects can no longer taste the substance.

3. II. Hypothesis • If I dilute sugar, salt, and vinegar, then my taste threshold for vinegar will be the highest.

4. III. Materials • Iodized Salt • Granulated Sugar • Distilled White Vinegar • Distilled Water • Stirring Spoons • Gram Balance • mL Measuring Syringe • Paper Cups • Paper Towels • ¼ Tablespoon Measuring Spoons

5. IV. Procedure 1. Gather Materials. 2. Set up the balance scale and syringe for measuring liquid. 3. Set out paper cups and label them with the percentage of dilution and the substance you are diluting. Ex. Salt, Sugar, Vinegar 4. Measure 90 ml of distilled water using the syringe and pour it into a paper cup. Add 10 g of granulated sugar. Stir until dissolved. This gives you a 10% sucrose solution.

6. Procedure Continued 5. Rinse your mouth with plain tap water and wipe your tongue dry with a clean paper towel. 6. Using a ¼ tablespoon measure, fill it with the 10% sucrose solution. Pour the contents into your mouth to see if you can taste the sugar.

7. Procedure Continued 7. Write down whether you can taste the substance or not (it is helpful to create a data table to collect results.) 8. In order to dilute the 10% solution, measure out 10 ml of the 10% solution and pour it into a clean paper cup. Add 90 ml of distilled water and stir (use a clean stirrer or spoon so that you don't carry over concentrated solution into the dilute solution.) This will give you a 1% solution.

8. Procedure Continued Note: To dilute solutions you always take 10 mL of the previous solution and mix it with 90 mL of distilled water. Also, to create a 10% vinegar solution use 2 ml of vinegar and 18 ml of water.

9. Procedure Continued 9. Repeat dilutions as necessary and repeat experiment with all substances that you are testing.

10. Experiment Setup

11. During The Experiment

12. Graph

13. Salt Data • Can Taste= Can’t Taste=

14. Vinegar Data Can Taste= Can’t Taste=

15. Sugar Data • Can Taste= Can’t Taste=

16. Analysis/Conclusion I disproved my hypothesis during the experiment. I believed that the vinegar was going to be the most bitter and easiest to taste throughout the dilutions. However, after the 10% dilution I could no longer even taste a hint of it in the water. Based on my data, salt was the easiest to taste for all members involved.

17. Conclusion Continued After my experiment I realized that using paper cups and paper towels might have influenced the ability to taste the substances being diluted, because of the chemicals used when processing the paper. If I were to repeat the experiment I would use glass cups and would not dry my mouth with paper towels.

18. Conclusion Continued Also, I might not rinse my mouth with tap water, but rather distilled water. Tap water could have trace chemicals in it that might have influenced my ability to taste. Another change that I might make would be not using metal spoons, they too could influence the taste of the substances.