Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,

My upcoming experiment would be about whether there is more oxygen dissolved in cold water or warm water. The experiment is named as "I Can't Breathe Here" in the projects listed in the website. I am worried if using different types of bottled water instead of stream or river water would make the results vary, since in the materials it says to have three samples of water from streams, river, etc. I can't collect water sample water from the nearby rivers or streams, since the waters are frozen. Would it be okay to use bottled water instead of the river and stream water? I was thinking of using two samples of bottled water like spring water and distilled water, but for the third sample of water, it would be tap water. Is it okay to do that?

Hi Rida, I wonder why you've posted the same questions twice? To avoid confusion, I've deleted your earlier post.
Thank you. Moderator.

Hi Rida,

Welcome to Science Buddies!

I am familiar with this project, but I can't find it at the moment. Will you please post the link so I can see all of the details again?

This is an excellent project, however, your results will be more interesting if you are able to test a variety of water samples. I would expect the oxygen content of various bottled water samples to be similar.

Perhaps you could test bottled water, fresh tap water, and water that has been recently boiled and cooled. Perhaps you could test water that has been sitting for a few days at room temperature
with organic matter added to simulate polluted water. Maybe you could melt some river ice or snow and measure the oxygen content. Or, perhaps pick one cold water sample, and heat it gradually and test the oxygen content at different temperatures. Remember that you want to do a controlled experiment with just one independent variable (your water sample). Try to be creative, but think of a unified theme so your project won't seem like a random collection of data.

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Donna Hardy