Aunt Elda Lab
By Jameson Meyer
Beer's Law
Beer's Law is the scientific law that states as the concentration of a solution gets higher, so does the absorbance of light
Necessary Knowledge Needed Prior to Beginning the Lab
-Beer's Law
-What a colorimeter does
-What absorbance measures
Colorimeters and their functions
Colorimeters are a machine that you put a solution into and it measures what the absorbance of light is. You can use a LabPro converter to put that information into a graph which allows you to interpret your information more easily.
Absorbance
Absorbance is the amount of light that is being taken in as it passes through the liquid. It allows you to measure the concentration of a solution.
What happened?
The Trials
We took solutions of 10%, 15%, 20%, 40%, 50%, and 100% and we put them in the colorimeter and measured their light absorbance. We then took those light absorbency statistics and put them into a graph. We then took the Aunt Elda solution and measured its solution's absorbency. Then using our graph that we made with our previous tests, we were able to plot the absorbency and using the line of best fit, we were able to find the percent of solution of the Aunt Elda solution.
The Aunt Elda Graph
The line of best fit allows us to find how the absorbency relates to how strong the solution is.
Why did it happen?
The solutions had different absorbency levels because the more solute that is in the solvent, the less clear it is. When the solution is less clear, it allows for less light to pass through it so that means that it has a high absorbency.
How to create a solution (10%)
Step-by-Step
1. Find out the amount of solution you need, in this case, 100 mL.
2. Take the amount of solution needed and multiply the percentage needed this will give you how much solute you need
3. Take the amount of solution needed and subtract the amount of solute needed and that will give you the amount of solvent needed.
4. Mix the two and you will have the solution needed
Conclusions
By doing this experiment, we found that the amount of anesthesia was too high and likely caused Aunt Elda's death. We found that there was about a 60% solution used when the amount that is highest to legally be used is 40%.