Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

The inactive ingredients will be listed on the pill box or bottle. You'll have to figure out on your own whether any particular inactive ingredients are of particular interest to you. A good place to look for information is your local library. You might also try a search engine, or encyclopedia.

Dear jamesleerpc,

As all of the Experts who have been advising you have already stressed, hydrochloric acid is a very dangerous substance and should only be used WITH ADULT SUPERVISION and in a safe lab setting. Our Experts have clearly indicated the safety procedures that must be followed while working with this substance, but we have not received a clear confirmation from you that you will be following these procedures. We are concerned for your safety and we ask that you please email us at [email protected] and provide us with the name and telephone number of the adult who will be assisting you with this project so we can speak to him/her directly about the appropriate safety procedures.

We hope you understand that our primary concern here is for your safety.

Regards,

Tina Lanese
Science Buddies Staff

Dear jamesleerpc,

As all of the Experts who have been advising you have already stressed, hydrochloric acid is a very dangerous substance and should only be used WITH ADULT SUPERVISION and in a safe lab setting. Our Experts have clearly indicated the safety procedures that must be followed while working with this substance, but we have not received a clear confirmation from you that you will be following these procedures. We are concerned for your safety and we ask that you please email us at [email protected] and provide us with the name and telephone number of the adult who will be assisting you with this project so we can speak to him/her directly about the appropriate safety procedures.

We hope you understand that our primary concern here is for your safety.

Regards,

Tina Lanese
Science Buddies Staff

My biology teacher will be supervising me and helping me...i havent set a date yet...but i will get his phone number and i will email it to you...also i have to tell him you will be calling him...

Thanks,
James

I need help badly!!!!!...I was wondering that if our pills had to be like the same size...like all of the mhave to be like 500mg caplets or such...i am not sure but my teacher has gotten the HCl and he will be assistin me so all that is taken care of...all i need is help with my research...Thanks everyone for the aleve.comand tylenol.com it has helped me greatly but when i try to look for stuff more in depth in the search engine wack sites with nothing to do with my experiment comes out...so i cannot find anything!...

Thanks a alot,
James

jamesleerpc wrote:I need help badly!!!!!...I was wondering that if our pills had to be like the same size...like all of the mhave to be like 500mg caplets or such...i am not sure but my teacher has gotten the HCl and he will be assistin me so all that is taken care of...all i need is help with my research...Thanks everyone for the aleve.comand tylenol.com it has helped me greatly but when i try to look for stuff more in depth in the search engine wack sites with nothing to do with my experiment comes out...so i cannot find anything!...

Thanks a alot,
James

This is part of your hypothesis. Does the material type or amount of inactive material matter? Depending on how you design your experiement this may or may not be important (i.e. this could be a controlled or uncontrolled variable). This is something that was discussed in some detail in the other threads you have been shown.

Louise

Thank You Louise you have helped me far more than i could ever imagine... but when you try to like look up the inactive ingredients it will not work...like the search engine gives sites that is irrelevant... also...someone sent me an email asking for the person i will be working with and his phone number ...do i need to give her that information?

jamesleerpc wrote:but when you try to like look up the inactive ingredients it will not work...like the search engine gives sites that is irrelevant...

It should be on the package or insert. It should be on the company website. Or you can call the company and ask.

also...someone sent me an email asking for the person i will be working with and his phone number ...do i need to give her that information?

I think you should email the scibuddies admin with the information she requested, or have your teacher email her. Don't post your teachers private information on the forum though.

Louise

alright thanks louise i have been helped really well...I'll let you know if anything comes up ok?and should i give you like the data i get from my experiment?

Thanks,
James

We would be more than happy to take a look at your data. Once you are done with your experiment and have analyzed your data, post your data and analysis here and we'll give you some feedback.

Glad to hear that things are going well!

alright then once i get a specific date to do the experiment with my teacher ill do the experiment and post the results...and also one more question..i have a logbook where we put our things we research in...i put like all the active and inactive ingredients of all the pills i am gonna use ...do u have nay other suggestoins on wat i should include in my logbook?

THanks,
James

Hi James,

Very pleased to hear that things are moving forward for you! It sounds as though you're almost at the experimental - and definitely the most exciting, up until now - phase of your project.

A great guide to what to include in your laboratory notebook (assuming that this is what you meant by log book) can be found at https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... tebook.pdf

Please read over the document, and if you have any more questions, please be sure to let us know!

Good luck,
Geoff.

Thanks so much for everything ...ill contact you soon with more details and questions

Thanks
James

oh also should i like right about the history of HCl...and i am trying to get my mg of the pain relievers the same but its hard because 2 of them have 500mg and one has 325mg and the other one has 200mg (total of 4)and i think i should keep that constant so that i will not have to make a new variable...i cant find many pain relievers with 500mg except 2..and all the others dont match at all...

jamesleerpc wrote:oh also should i like right about the history of HCl...and i am trying to get my mg of the pain relievers the same but its hard because 2 of them have 500mg and one has 325mg and the other one has 200mg (total of 4)and i think i should keep that constant so that i will not have to make a new variable...i cant find many pain relievers with 500mg except 2..and all the others dont match at all...

James,
I am also glad to hear that you project is going well. I don't think you need to write about the history of HCl, unless you found something very interesting that you don't want to forget. Probably your report will be more about how HCl is what is in the stomach and how pain relievers dissolve, and less about the history.

As for the pills, this is an interesting question. I would guess that advil, tylenol, and aspirin are all available in 500 mg pills. If you think that this is an important variable to controll, you could limit your study to pills with the same amount of active material and use different brands. For example, advil is a brand name for ibuprophen, which you can also buy as a "generic" drug. So, if you go to the drug store, you can buy CVS/RiteAid/Target/whatever brand of ibuprophen.

Another way to look at this is to make this another variable. Does having a small pill mean that it dissolves faster? Or is it the amount of filler and not the ammount of active ingredient that is important?

There are many variables (and questions) here, so I would try to pick the one that interest you most, and controll all others.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Louise

Thanks everyone for all the help...Umm...well i cant find any caplets/tablets that are all 500 mg...unless they are like cool caplets/gel caplet and my teacher said if i use those then it would mess my whole experiment up.

Thanks,
James

jamesleerpc wrote:Thanks everyone for all the help...Umm...well i cant find any caplets/tablets that are all 500 mg...unless they are like cool caplets/gel caplet and my teacher said if i use those then it would mess my whole experiment up.

Thanks,
James

Okay, what specifically do you have. Please list brands/ # mg. Is there a specific number of variables you have to test?


Louise

ok this is what i have:
tylenol 500mg
advil 200mg
aleve 500mg
aspirin 325mg
and my teacher said to have 1 variable(independanr/manipulating)

jamesleerpc wrote:ok this is what i have:
tylenol 500mg
advil 200mg
aleve 500mg
aspirin 325mg
and my teacher said to have 1 variable(independanr/manipulating)

Okay, why don't you add a generic of tylenol and see if you can find "extra strength" aspirin. There are a couple of brands that sell 500 mg, but I couldn't see what type of coating they have.

Then you would have 4 at 500 mg:
tylenol
generic tylenol
aleve
aspirin

If you cannot find extra strength aspirin, then maybe the 3 will still be okay.


Louise

ummm ok but what is generic tylenol?

sorry for the mistake but i switched the tylenol mg and the aspirin mg up...

Tylenol is a brand of pain reliever. The active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen. Generic Tylenol is the same thing, but sold under a different name (and usually cheaper). You might try going to a Walgreens, Rite Aid, Longs, etc. and asking for their "store brand" of Tylenol or "generic" Tylenol.

Thanks alot terik...so like for the name i would put down...would i put generic tylenol or the name of it on the box?

Thanks,
James

oh also i just researched...would extra strength (caplet) with 500mg ok?

You could do either. It doesn't really matter as long as you know that it is the same as Tylenol so that if you are asked a question you can answer it. Just pick what you think is best!

Ok thank you for the encouragement....btw one more question i asked my teacher (because i found different pills that were like cool pills or rapid release with 500mg) if i could use rapid release or cool/liquid gel and he said no unless all of them were rapid release or cool/liquid gel..can you tell me why?

jamesleerpc wrote:Ok thank you for the encouragement....btw one more question i asked my teacher (because i found different pills that were like cool pills or rapid release with 500mg) if i could use rapid release or cool/liquid gel and he said no unless all of them were rapid release or cool/liquid gel..can you tell me why?

James,
I'm guessing that Terik answered your question about generic drugs (though you will notice that I mentioned the store brands and the definition of them last Thursday, and suggested that you use them at that time, and again in today's post). I wouldn't test more than one generic of a type (aspirin, acetomenophen, etc.) though, because they are probably the same. What I mean is generic tylenol and tylenol are made by different companies and so _are different_, but many generic drugs are made by one company, and sold under different names. So CVS, RiteAid, Target brand acetomenophin might actually be the same pills with different labels.

Usually pills have coatings to alter how they dissolve. So rapid release would dissolve faster. Enteric coating means it dissolve slower. Anyway, it is something you could test (if you had a different hypothesis), but I think is not okay for your experiment. [I still don't think you every said what your hypothesis was, only what the null was]

Louise

I know I never stated my hypothesis because my teacher said we dont need a hypothesis but just have a null hypothsis...that is why i never said my hypothesis...because i never had one....

Ummmm... just a question but would it be good to right like what HCl is like attracted to?(not attracted but like what it dissolves best and stuff)?

thanks,
james

I think that a discussion about what HCl breaks down would be a very interesting thing to add to the background information section of your project. You may also find that this information will help you understand the results of your project better. Great idea!

Terik Daly wrote:I think that a discussion about what HCl breaks down would be a very interesting thing to add to the background information section of your project. You may also find that this information will help you understand the results of your project better. Great idea!

I agree! Any information that helps someone to understand your project should go in the background. Understanding how HCl dissolves things would obviously be important to understanding your results.

Glad to see that you are working on the paper early.


Louise