Questions about rotating prism in Measuring Sugar Content of a Liquid with a Laser Pointer
Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2022 3:05 pm
Hello and thank you in advance.
I'm a teacher guiding a student with the project "Measuring Sugar Content of a Liquid with a Laser Pointer"
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... er-pointer
and I have some specific questions about the experimental procedure.
1. In step 3 of the section "Standard Sugar Solutions for Comparison", the procedure states to "repeat your measurements ... for a total of 5 replicates". What exactly is the difference between the 5 trials? The solution is not being changed, nor the position of the laser. How will the measured spot be any different?
Is it the rotation of the prism to make the in-prism refracted beam (blue in diagram) parallel to the "unused" face (so as to truly get the angle of minimum deviation)? Thus the 5 trials is to average over the source of error of not getting the rotation/parallel exactly right? Is this understanding correct?
2. To be clear, for each new sugar solution (10%, 20%, 30%), we must rotate the prism to a different angle to make the new inner-prism beam parallel to the opposing face. Is this correct? As above, the instructions are not clear as to what will be different for different iterations of the experiment.
Thank you for your advice!
I'm a teacher guiding a student with the project "Measuring Sugar Content of a Liquid with a Laser Pointer"
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... er-pointer
and I have some specific questions about the experimental procedure.
1. In step 3 of the section "Standard Sugar Solutions for Comparison", the procedure states to "repeat your measurements ... for a total of 5 replicates". What exactly is the difference between the 5 trials? The solution is not being changed, nor the position of the laser. How will the measured spot be any different?
Is it the rotation of the prism to make the in-prism refracted beam (blue in diagram) parallel to the "unused" face (so as to truly get the angle of minimum deviation)? Thus the 5 trials is to average over the source of error of not getting the rotation/parallel exactly right? Is this understanding correct?
2. To be clear, for each new sugar solution (10%, 20%, 30%), we must rotate the prism to a different angle to make the new inner-prism beam parallel to the opposing face. Is this correct? As above, the instructions are not clear as to what will be different for different iterations of the experiment.
Thank you for your advice!