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I'm doing an experiment to see how each type of vinegars' (white, wine, balsamic,etc) pH differs, but I found almost every acidity percent is 5%, finding no meaning in the question. So I decided to compare the main ingredient of the vinegar to the main ingredient alone, but it takes 2-3 months to make vinegar. If I just add the main ingredient to the white vinegar, I saw, and measure the pH each day, will it make a reasonable experiment? I'm looking for as much advice, even if it's not in this question, related and what I can do and what I can't do. Please! I'm very urgent!!!! Thank you.
Also by "how" it means the components and ingredients. Again, no time!!! VERY URGENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Research Report due this friday!!!!
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Re: Research Report due this friday!!!!
Hi akoo,
If I were in your situation, there I would just use the results of your original experiment. There is nothing wrong with doing an experiment and not getting the results you expected. This is a common mistake that some students make - that if their hypothesis wasn't right, then their whole experiment was "wrong" or "didn't work." However, that is not the case at all, and it happens in real science all the time. Scientists make a hypothesis and then do an experiment to test it. Sometimes that hypothesis turns out to be wrong - that does not mean the experiment was a failure. Finding out whether that hypothesis was right or wrong is the whole point of doing the experiment.
In this case, your result is that the pH of all the different types of vinegar is actually the same, even though they have different ingredients. If your hypothesis was that "the pH levels will be different", then your hypothesis was wrong - but that does not mean there was "no meaning in the question"! As long as you can work on explaining why your hypothesis was wrong, then you still learned something useful. I'm a mechanical engineer and actually don't know much about chemistry - but I would say that you should learn more about acids and pH. Do all vinegars (regardless of the "flavor" or type) have the same type of acid? If so, is that the primary factor in determining pH, which would explain why the pH levels are all the same? I don't know the answers to those questions - but some Google searching will probably help you find out!
Hope that helps,
Ben
If I were in your situation, there I would just use the results of your original experiment. There is nothing wrong with doing an experiment and not getting the results you expected. This is a common mistake that some students make - that if their hypothesis wasn't right, then their whole experiment was "wrong" or "didn't work." However, that is not the case at all, and it happens in real science all the time. Scientists make a hypothesis and then do an experiment to test it. Sometimes that hypothesis turns out to be wrong - that does not mean the experiment was a failure. Finding out whether that hypothesis was right or wrong is the whole point of doing the experiment.
In this case, your result is that the pH of all the different types of vinegar is actually the same, even though they have different ingredients. If your hypothesis was that "the pH levels will be different", then your hypothesis was wrong - but that does not mean there was "no meaning in the question"! As long as you can work on explaining why your hypothesis was wrong, then you still learned something useful. I'm a mechanical engineer and actually don't know much about chemistry - but I would say that you should learn more about acids and pH. Do all vinegars (regardless of the "flavor" or type) have the same type of acid? If so, is that the primary factor in determining pH, which would explain why the pH levels are all the same? I don't know the answers to those questions - but some Google searching will probably help you find out!
Hope that helps,
Ben