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Orange Juice vs Powerade - Electrolytes
Moderators: kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
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desireft
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 8:37 pm
- Occupation: 7th grade student
- Project Question: I already measured the currents of orange juice & sports drinks, but I've returned the multimeter that I borrowed to conduct the experiment, and I don't know if the numbers I have are in microamps or milliamps to know if I divide by 1,000 or 1,000,000. The ammeter gave me a reading of 40.57 for orange juice and .04 for distilled water. Any idea if that is milliamps or microamps? I need to know so I can divide properly to calculate conductance. Thank you!
- Project Due Date: January 12, 2011
- Project Status: I am finished with my experiment and analyzing the data
Orange Juice vs Powerade - Electrolytes
I borrowed a multimeter from a friend to conduct my experiment. I logged all info from my 4 test solutions, but I really don't know how to interpret the decimals to solve the formula for conductance. Since I returned the multimeter, I can't retest. For example, I got a reading of 21.47 for Powerade and .04 for distilled water. Any idea if that is measuring Milliamps for microamps? I need to know so I know what I need to divide each number by to find conductance.
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deleted-71487
- Former Expert
- Posts: 214
- Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2005 3:07 pm
Re: Orange Juice vs Powerade - Electrolytes
You should be able to answer this from the research you did before the project, by one of 2 methods:
1) Read the instructions for, and settings of, your multimeter. It will tell you what units it's measuring in. But perhaps you don't still have the multimeter, or instructions.
2) Find an approximate estimate of the conductance of one of your samples in reference materials. This should enable you get a rough order of magnitude guess at the "correct" answer. That should let you determine if the numbers you were seeing are in millivolts or microvolts.
1) Read the instructions for, and settings of, your multimeter. It will tell you what units it's measuring in. But perhaps you don't still have the multimeter, or instructions.
2) Find an approximate estimate of the conductance of one of your samples in reference materials. This should enable you get a rough order of magnitude guess at the "correct" answer. That should let you determine if the numbers you were seeing are in millivolts or microvolts.
../ray\..
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deleted-71360
- Former Expert
- Posts: 89
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2005 6:58 pm
Re: Orange Juice vs Powerade - Electrolytes
When using the multimeter:
1. You set the selector knob to what you want to measure, be it volts, amps, or ohms.
2. The positive lead (usually red and plugged into the + terminal) is connected to the most positive voltage
(does not matter for resistance).
3. The reading is on the scale that corresponds to the selector setting.
Example: If your meter has a 3V scale and you select that setting, then a two volt source give about 2/3 of full scal deflection.
Use: If you want to measure current, you connect the meter in series with the load. If you do not know the difference, put the meter down and get knowlegable help.
If you want to measure conductance, set the meter to resistance, read the result in ohms, and take the recripocal of that number.
Pure water is a nearly perfect insulator (high resistance) and should have very low conductance. The Powerade probably has some salt and other electrolytes dissolved in it, which gives more conductance.
1. You set the selector knob to what you want to measure, be it volts, amps, or ohms.
2. The positive lead (usually red and plugged into the + terminal) is connected to the most positive voltage
(does not matter for resistance).
3. The reading is on the scale that corresponds to the selector setting.
Example: If your meter has a 3V scale and you select that setting, then a two volt source give about 2/3 of full scal deflection.
Use: If you want to measure current, you connect the meter in series with the load. If you do not know the difference, put the meter down and get knowlegable help.
If you want to measure conductance, set the meter to resistance, read the result in ohms, and take the recripocal of that number.
Pure water is a nearly perfect insulator (high resistance) and should have very low conductance. The Powerade probably has some salt and other electrolytes dissolved in it, which gives more conductance.