An Experiment to Investigate How Amount of Sugar or Temperature Affects the Rate at Which the Product of Fermentation (carbon dioxide) is Released

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An Experiment to Investigate How Amount of Sugar or Temperature Affects the Rate at Which the Product of Fermentation (carbon dioxide) is Released

Yeast is a single celled fungus. When it is carried in the wind it

sometimes lands on fruit, where it feeds on the sugar. They turn this

sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide.

No oxygen

Sugar + Yeast à Carbon Dioxide + Ethanol

This reaction is known as fermentation.

I am going to see the effects of temperature over how much carbon

dioxide is released. I will measure it at room temperature (22°C) at

first then 60°C, 50°C, 40°C, 30°C and also body temperature (37°C). I

have chosen these to give me a range of results.

I will put an inverted measuring cylinder into a trough filled with

water and clamp it in place. I will put 10ml of water, 1g of yeast and

1g of sugar into a conical flask connected to the beaker using a

delivery tube. I will measure the amount of carbon dioxide given off

every 30 seconds for two and a half minutes.

I will use a pair of electric scales, set to two decimal places, to

make sure my results are reliable. I will also make sure there are no

bubbles in the measuring cylinder; this could cause more volume of gas

than there should be. Other factors like making the temperature exact

or the results could be anomalous. Accurate reading will be hard, but

I decided to measure the results to the top of the meniscus.

To stay safe I will tuck my tie in, take off my blazer and wear safety

glasses. I must also remember to follow all the usual lab rules such

as: no eating, no running, listen to instructions, etc.

I predict that when I increase the temperature the amount of carbon

dioxide will increase to a certain point. After a certain temperature

it will stop reacting because it will be too hot and it will kill off

all of the yeast.

To make sure this would be the best experiment I decided to do some

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