Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am doing a science fair experiment that requires quantifying apple browning without using laboratory equipment such as a spectrophotometer. I figured out a method of quantifying apple browning that seems okay for a science fair experiment. So I will vectorize the images of the apple(to get accurate shades of the apple) and make a range of shades with increasing darkness. I will measure the amount of each specific shade on each apple and compare the results. I am considering giving the darker shades a multiplier. I will decrease the multiplier for the brighter shades until it reaches the standard apple shade color. For instance, there is an apple with 2 centimeters of the darkest shade which has a multiplier of 2.5. I will multiply those two, I will get 5. Suppose it has 3 centimeters of the second darkest shade which has a multiplier of 2.0. I will multiply 3 centimeters by the multiplier to get 6. I will do this for all of the shades of the apple and add them together. I will repeat this process for every apple and compare the results. Is this a good way of measurement? Are there any better ways of quantifying the browning of apples without using laboratory equipment? If so, can you please tell me what they are?

P.S. The shades its multipliers will be the same for every tested apple

Please respond asap as I need to finish this as quickly as I can.
Thanks!

Hi! Science Buddies has a similar experiment which I am linking below. In this experiment, data is quantified on a scale from 1 - 5, with 1 being not brown to 5 being very brown. While this is not as accurate as the results from a spectrophotometer, it is a way to analyze the data of the apple slices relative to the others. Hopefully this helps, but let us know if you have any other questions!

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... c-browning

Good luck with your project,
Chloe

Hi!
Are there any more methods that can quantify the browning of apples more accurately without using a spectrophotometer? I saw some recent posts similar to this talking about a software called ImageJ for quantification. How does it work? Also, was the method I was writing about seem like a good idea for science fair projects?

Thanks,
Lalit