Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

What is a good hypothesis for separating colors in fall leaves using alcohol and paper filters?.

If you want to do paper chromatography with leaves, one hypothesis could be which color leaves would have more pigments, or is there a difference between different kinds of leaves. I hope that helps!

FunScientist wrote:If you want to do paper chromatography with leaves, one hypothesis could be which color leaves would have more pigments, or is there a difference between different kinds of leaves. I hope that helps!

I like this idea about exploring the different pigments in different types of leaves. This could be very obvious if you have access to leaves from a tree such as a red maple.

The other experts have given you a good start, but I just wanted to add a few more suggestions. One hypothesis could be what color pigments would appear when you take apart the pigments in a specific leaf, like a red or silver maple. Or, you could guess which colors will be similar in the same family of trees. Another hypothesis could be based on how the pigments change from when the leaf is new (immature) and green until a leaf (from the same tree) turns another color (for example yellow, orange or red). To test this, you would need a couple of leafs from the same tree: some need to be young, and some need to have already changed color.