Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Im getting 576% in extraction efficiency by dividing fat extracted % and % from nutrition label is the % correct?

Hi scastillo49,

Extraction efficiency refers to the amount of fat you extracted from your food sample relative to the amount of fat in the food. Since it’s not possible to extract more fat than the amount that’s in the food the extraction efficiency cannot be greater than 100%. An extraction efficiency of 576% is incorrect. You might want to review your calculations to see if there’s a math error.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

Thank you! my calculations were incorrect
Can you please help me with my variables?
Im using acetone to extract the fat in crackers, potato chips, and pancake mix. I am using about 10 grams of food and 20ml of acetone twice. What are the independent, dependent, and constant variables?

Hi scastillo49,

Glad to hear that you resolved your extraction efficiency calculation.

An independent variable is something that you change in your experiment to observe a response in a dependent variable. Ideally, other factors (or variables) that may affect the experimental results are held constant.

Some useful information about variables is provided at the following link:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... /variables

What are you measuring in your fat extraction experiment? That is your dependent variable. And what are you changing in the experiment to see differences in your dependent variable? That is your independent variable.

The details about how you perform the extraction (mass of food, solvent volume) are examples of constants in your experiment.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

Thank you so much A. Norman you have given me great advice and help.