Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I CHOOSED A PROJECT TO CALCULATE CONCENTRATION OF SUGAR IN A SOLUTION USING LASER POINTER WITH THE APPLICATION OF SNELLS LAW.I UNDERSTOOD HOW TO FIND REFRACTIVE INDEX OF SUGAR SOLUTION IN THE EXPERIMENT.BUT I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIND CONCENTRATION OF SUGAR FROM THE REFRACTIVE INDEX .WOULD YOU HELP TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM.PLEASE[/u][/i]

arun1390 wrote:



I CHOOSED A PROJECT TO CALCULATE CONCENTRATION OF SUGAR IN A SOLUTION USING LASER POINTER WITH THE APPLICATION OF SNELLS LAW.I UNDERSTOOD HOW TO FIND REFRACTIVE INDEX OF SUGAR SOLUTION IN THE EXPERIMENT.BUT I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIND CONCENTRATION OF SUGAR FROM THE REFRACTIVE INDEX .WOULD YOU HELP TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM.PLEASE[/u][/i]

You need to create a calibration curve with known sugar solutions. You should try to have 5 different solutions where you know the concentration. Then you measure the refractive index of these, and then you can make a graph of concentration vs. refractive index (this graph would probably be a line). Lastly, you take the unknown solution, and find where on the graph its refractive index is- then you can calculate exactly the concentration. Is this clear?

Louise