Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Needing help with how the calculations are done. After testing the liquids this is what I came up with. I used the multimeter that came in the kit.

Distilled Water was set at 200U turned to the right- the average was 22 which I don't think is right.
Tap water and all the other liquids I tested the meter was set to 200m also turned to the right.
Tap Water 7.8
Orange Juice Some Pulp 39.03
Orange Juice No Pulp 41.63
Powerade Lemon Lime Zero Calories 38.10
Gatorade Lemon Lime Low Calories 24.43
Gatorade Lemon Lime 25.40
Powerade Lemon Lime 35.27

These were just the averages before I went any further, not sure if these are correct

jayhawk0681 - All of the readings you obtained are certainly in the expected range. I'm surprised that tap water was as high as 7.8 milliamps, but you may have some unique minerals or salts in your local water. The juices seem perfectly normal.

Rick Marz

Just a question to make sure I'm doing it right, do I now take the averages and divide tem by 1,00,000 for the distilled water and 1000 for all the other liquids then take that number and divide by 9.

jayhawk0681 - Most of the equations you will use express current in amperes, so you are correct, your microamp scale readings will be divided by 1,000,000 and your milliamp readings are divided by 1,000.

Rick Marz