Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Help! I'm in 5th grade. I'm not understanding how to exactly do trial data on this experiment. I did the experiment with my mom using 10 different liquids including water, carbonated water, regular and diet sodas. I'm not allowed to use human or animal teeth for my school. So I used granulated limestone instead. I took limestones (40 grams) and place in coffee filter and tied it then soaked them into 10 diffent glasses with 10 diffenet liquids (sodas , 350ml each). They were soaked for 24 hours then the next day I took them out then let them dry. I weighed them each and subtract the difference. Pre weight minus post weight if the limestone. I did this to all of them. Of course i've found the difference and very shocked how much density the limestone have lost except with the water. Then for the "Trial Data" I'm soooo stuck. What do I do next. Is that mean I have to redo my work four more times if I needed at least 5 trials? Is that what means????? I dunno. I need help soon. Pls help. I've googled how to do trial data but cannot get the best answer. Thanks.

Hello,

Your project sounds very interesting and is well thought out. We repeat trials to ensure the validity of our results; we want to make sure that what we observed is not just a fluke or an accident. To get 5 trials of your experiment you will need to run the experiment 4 more times, however, if you are worried about time, you can run the trials simultaneously. The next time you run your experiment, you will have 4 trials of each liquid. So you will have water 1, water 2, water 3, and water 4, soda 1, soda 2, and so on. To analyze your results take the average decrease in mass over the 5 trials.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your project
Nithin T