Need help with procedure - varying CO2 levels

[mjratliff93]

Fishing the research on my experiment, I had to come up with a rough procedure next for my high school inquiry project. I found a similar experiment on the Science Buddies website (the one entitled "Is it Getting Hot in Here? Investigate the Greenhouse Effect"), so I based my procedure off of that one. My question for my inquiry project is how do increasing concentrations of CO2 in the environment and atmosphere affect it's heat absorption? I was going to use the procedure from the similar experiment and just change have varying colors of acrylic sheets. However, after my alterations to the procedure, my teacher questioned how I am going to vary the amount of CO2 in the box. I am confused on how I can do this, because he said I would need to rethink my entire procedure, and I have no idea how to measure the varying CO2 concentrations within the box. He suggested I use dry ice, but it is very hard to get access to where I am from. Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

[deleted-93346]

I cannot tell from your description just what experiment you wish to perform. I can suggest two ways to generate CO2 other than dry ice. 1) Adding distilled white vinegar to bicarbonate of soda will generate CO2. You can get both ingredients at any supermarket. However, this is messy and provides no convenient way to control the amount of CO2 delivered from the foaming liquid that will be created. 2) 16 gram pressurized CO2 cartridges are used to inflate bike tires. You can buy these cartridges and the gadget needed to let the CO2 out in a controlled manner from many sources, for example Amazon. If you decide to use these, please be very careful -- the high pressure gas can turn a cartridge into a rocket if you do not follow the directions carefully. Another suggestion: don't give up on dry ice. Here is the URL for a directory of retail stores that carry one brand of dry ice: http://dryiceideas.com/wheretopurchase/ I am sure that if you look on the web you will be able to find a company that will sell you dry ice and ship it to you. If you do use dry ice, be extremely careful handling it -- just touching it with bare skin will produce a painful frost burn!! Hope these ideas help and good luck with your project.