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No. The fact they are different colors tells us that immediately. In addition, I would expect your data would show that the molecules migrate at different speeds through the gel."Do different color dyes have the same type of macromolecules?"
"Does number of color bands represent the number of macromolecules or the size of the macromolecules?"
That is what you did the experiment to find out. "Yellow" food dyes from different sources could very well have different mixtures of dyes. For fun you could make your own custom food color by combining two of the commercial colorings. The pattern of bands in the gel would then have bands corresponding to both of the food colorings in your mixture."Does the yellow food dye have one or two bands after going through the chamber?"
That sounds reasonable to me.sharonholland wrote: I also tested different brands of food dye. One of my brands(Great Value) only had one band for yellow and the other brand(McCormick) had two bands for yellow. Is that okay? Since the name brand probably had higher concentration of macromolecules and pigments that made up their yellow die. Right?
Small molecules migrate faster generally speaking. The details are more complex (aren't they alwayssharonholland wrote: Also, I know that the reason for different speeds of migration through the chamber is based on the size of macromolecules. But do small or large macromolecules migrate faster?
), the speed of migration also depends on the charge of the molecule, the shape of the molecule, and the distribution of the charge. Also, while I am by no means a real expert in this area, I would not call dye molecules macromolecules despite what the write-up on our site says -- I reserve the term macromolecules to molecules that are much, much larger than dye molecules. If you look up "food colorings" in Wikipedia, you can find the chemical names of several of the many food colorings in use, and if you look those up you can see what the molecules look like. They are indeed complicated compared to water, bicarbonate of sodium, salt and other simple chemicals you may be familiar with, but if you then look up "macromolecule" you can see a picture of what one of them looks like. It's the difference between a house and a city. As a scientist I have been trained to be very precise in the terms I use; I don't think you need to worry about these distinctions in your report at this stage in your career./-/https/www.sciencebuddies.org/cdn/Files/21464/5/sb-logo.png){kind=logo}
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