Is it Ripe Yet?

[deleted-681812]

I was doing the project "Is it Ripe Yet", and when I was on the part of measuring each colour's light intensity value, I realized I didn't have a control group and I didn't know if I needed one. Can someone please help me in knowing if I need a control group? Also, if someone could help define resistance and light intensity, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[17eugenekim]

Hello,

Good question. The thing about "Is It Ripe Yet" is that it is, at its core, like a type of engineering project. Here, you are not necessarily testing a hypothesis about fruit ripening, but rather using what we know about ripe fruit to build a machine that can distinguish ripe from unripe fruit. Because of this, you can't really say you have any of the typical science fair "must-haves", like independent/dependent variables or a control group. I would recommend you check what kinds of projects are allowed in your science fair before beginning this project; if they only accept the standard hypothesis-testing kind of project, this would be a poor fit.

Resistance is a measure of how hard it is for electrical current to flow through something. A metal wire, for instance, will have much lower resistance than something like wood or plastic. Different electrical components will have different resistance values.

Light intensity is simply how bright a light is shining. Do not confuse this with the energy of the light, which can depend on wavelength and frequency (e.g. the color of the light; purple light has more energy than red light).

Hope that helps!

[deleted-681812]

Thank you for the reply! I kind of Bended the project to fit to the guidelines in my Science Fair rules so my question is like What colors have the highest light intensity and my hypothesis is white but with the if... then twist on it. So, basically, my project is conducting an experiment on light intensity and then using that knowledge to build the fruit ripening device.

[17eugenekim]

Hi there -

Sorry I missed this thread last week. So if I understand correctly, you're asking what colors will show up as highest intensity? And the experiment is building an intensity-detecting circuit?

I'm just having trouble understanding here. I'm sure you've done your research more than I can in a few short Google searches, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. But as far as I can understand, color and intensity don't have a simple correlation. (You might get better detailed answers from the Physical Sciences Experts forum.)

I'm happy to help you but I just want to make sure we're on the same page. For instance, it would be helpful to know how exactly you've adjusted the project, as well as what your variables are. Then I could help you determine what your control group is (if any).