Science fair project: How does smell affect taste?
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kaush_m
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- Project Question: Behavioural Science experiment
- Project Due Date: 25/08/15
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Science fair project: How does smell affect taste?
Hi guys, I am doing an experimental project on "How does the sense of smell affect the sense of taste" I have experimented on 10 people of the same age 5 girls and 5 boys. What I did was that I called one person at a time and I blindfolded them, I made them smell a fragrance and I gave them a candy sucker to taste, the aim of the experiment was to see if that messed with their senses. So, I was wondering if you could plz help me find the independent and dependent variable and come up with a good hypothesis for this experiment..any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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SciB
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Re: Science fair project: How does smell affect taste?
Hi,
You already stated your hypothesis--smelling a fragrance alters the taste of candy in a group of subjects. The independent variables are the things you used for smelling and tasting. The dependent variable is the subject's report of what the taste was like. Did you do controls? You need to have your subjects report on the taste of the candy while not smelling the fragrance and then compare it to when you put the fragrance under their noses.
What did your subjects report? The sweetness would have been apparent regardless of any odor, but if the candy had a flavor like orange or lemon then smelling a fragrance at the same time might change the way it tasted. Did you ask them if they liked the taste of the candy? The perfume smell might make the candy taste odd and not pleasant. Let us know your results, OK? I'm curious about what you found.
If you have more questions about writing your report we'll be happy to help.
Sybee
You already stated your hypothesis--smelling a fragrance alters the taste of candy in a group of subjects. The independent variables are the things you used for smelling and tasting. The dependent variable is the subject's report of what the taste was like. Did you do controls? You need to have your subjects report on the taste of the candy while not smelling the fragrance and then compare it to when you put the fragrance under their noses.
What did your subjects report? The sweetness would have been apparent regardless of any odor, but if the candy had a flavor like orange or lemon then smelling a fragrance at the same time might change the way it tasted. Did you ask them if they liked the taste of the candy? The perfume smell might make the candy taste odd and not pleasant. Let us know your results, OK? I'm curious about what you found.
If you have more questions about writing your report we'll be happy to help.
Sybee
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roygoli
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Re: Science fair project: How does smell affect taste?
Hi kaush_m!
Your experiment seems really interesting! Just in case you needed any help applying the scientific method and just making your project more official further in science buddies has a page full of really useful information regarding the scientific method; for example, identifying your variables, constructing a conclusion etc...
Here's the link: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml
If you have any more questions science buddies will be happy to help! Good luck, and like Sybee mentioned we'd love to know how your project turns out!
Your experiment seems really interesting! Just in case you needed any help applying the scientific method and just making your project more official further in science buddies has a page full of really useful information regarding the scientific method; for example, identifying your variables, constructing a conclusion etc...
Here's the link: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml
If you have any more questions science buddies will be happy to help! Good luck, and like Sybee mentioned we'd love to know how your project turns out!