Tums…Tums…Tums…Tums…By: Navkiran Sidhu, Destiny Venegas, and Leticia Zuniga

Ms.Hubner’s Science ClassComputech Middle School

ABSTRACTIn this science experiment we tried to find out what kind of colors of Tums will spread out the most once we dipped it into the water. Our hypothesis was that whichever color has the smallest molecule will spread out the most. From what we learned in our research and the hypothesis we made, red has the biggest molecule. This shows that water spreads out the colors that have smaller molecules more the colors that have bigger molecules.

INTRODUCTIONThe main points in this experiment we are dealing with are paper chromatography and colors of the Tums. Paper chromatography is a technique that involves placing a small dot or line of sample solution onto a strip chromatography paper. As the solvent rises through the paper, it meets the sample mixture which starts to travel up the paper with the solvent. Chromatography mostly depends on the molecule size. Whichever one has the smallest molecule will spread out the fastest. The colors of the Tums are orange, yellow, green, and red. They all have different types of food coloring .So each food coloring have different molecules. The question we are testing is what kind of color of Tums will spread out the most when we dip it in water. Our hypothesis is that we think whichever color has the smallest molecule will spread out the most. We think this, because during our research we found chromatography depends on the molecule’s mass.

METHODSFirst, we mashed all the colors of the tums. Next, we put the colors liquid (turns into liquid after being mashed) as drops onto the filter paper. Then, we dipped them into water in a glass, but it is barely touching the water and you let it spread the colors. Afterwards we wait and let it dry. Last, we measured the length in cm. of each color and recorded that into a table. The materials we used were a masher, dropper, water, cup, Tums, ruler, pencil and filter paper.

DISCUSSIONThe results were that the green, yellow, and orange spread out almost at the same speed. The red spread out the least, because it has the biggest molecule.so green, orange, and yellow almost have the same molecule size and have small molecules. Water wouldn't need that much strength to break up the small molecules. It is like a kid would not need that much strength to kick a tennis ball as to a bowling ball. So probably the water has more effect on the molecules with smaller mass. I think we should have spread out the colors a little more when we put the drop on the filter paper. I think what we did well was we mashed the tums. It turned out to be like water afterwards just like we wanted.

Chromatography with Tums

Trials Red Orange Yellow Green

1 2.5 1.5 1.5 1.5

2 0.5 2.5 1.4 1.5

3 0.5 1.5 1.9 3.5

4 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.6

5 1 1.5 2.4 1

6 0.9 0.6 0.8 0.5

Average: 1.02 1.38 1.4 1.43

References-http://www.explainthatstuff.com/chromatography.htmlhttp://www.ehow.com/how-does_4614183_food-coloring-work.htmlhttp://www.bing.com/Dictionary/search?q=define+chromatography&qpvt=define+chromatography&FORM=DTPDIAhttp://www.ehow.com/how_4472974_do-chromatography-using-coffee-filter.html

SUMMARY The graph that is shown has 4 colors of the Tums .We calculated the average distance of spreading. It turned out that orange, yellow, and green were all about the same speed. Although, red was really slow and turned out to have a 2 mm. shorter distance then the others. From this graph I can tell that orange, yellow, and green have a smaller molecule count that is why the water spread them out more. So, red spread out the least that means it has bigger molecules. So this graph really helped us see the results and the outcomes.