Experiment Plan

The equipments I need for my experiment are:

• 4 large plates (with dent in the middle)
• full cream milk (coles brand)
• 4 different brands of detergents
• cotton tips (coles brand)
• camera
• *4 different colours of food colouring

*I've decided to use 4 different colours instead of 3, as it would be able to show more of the direction of movement of the milk. The colours are red, green, blue and yellow. I'm hoping that these colours will go nice with each other.

Aim: Whether the brand of detergent will affect the effectiveness of grease removal

Method:

1. Prepare equipment
2. Set the 4 plates on a flat surfaced table/desk
3. Pour equal amount of full cream milk in all of the plates
4. Drop one drop of each colour of food colouring into the middle of each plate
5. Dip one end of a cotton tip into a detergent
6. Place the end of the cotton tip with detergent into the middle of a plate
7. Record observation
8. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 for each brand of detergent
9. Take pictures of result for future referencing

For more accurate comparison, I may try performing steps 5, 6 and 7 simultaneously. In other words, place the cotton tips with different brands of detergents into the 4 plates at the same time. To do this, I would require another person to assist me, as I do not have 4 arms. It would also be a good idea to take a video of the result, for future reference of re-analysing and compare the results gained from different brands of detergent.

This experiment would need to be performed several times to ensure the accuracy of the results gained.

I encountered a problem while looking where I could purchase the equipments I would need for the experiment. I have had no problem, except for one. I do not know where I could buy food colouring. I went on coles and woolworths online shopping list, and I was not able to locate food colouring. So that is a big problem. I'm going to have a nice look around this weekend to try and find food dye, as this is the only equipment I need to be able to perform my experiment!! I did ask my dad, and he said you could buy them anywhere...well, let's hope he is right. If I cannot find any, then I must think of a replacement for food dye, which will certainly be bothersome. I'm just waiting for exams to finish and I will be starting my experiment! Yay~~XD

Oh, and a pretty interesting fact. While I was researching food dye, I found out that some food colouring are made from bugs. How gross~~they use bugs like beetles to create natural food colours and put them in food and such.

Here is the link to the site: http://organic.lovetoknow.com/Natural_Food_Coloring

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