Week 6: May 8, 2015

This is the sixth laboratory meeting for group four. Over the past week, between the time of the fifth laboratory meeting and this one, the group has officially tested all four different filtration materials: sand, charcoal, cloth and gravel. This information has been recorded on a data table (below this post) and visualized in a graph (below this post) of the average flow rates. For each material, three different amounts were tested, 20 mL, 60 mL and 100 mL. From there, the amount of water passed through in mL was measured along with the time interval. From those values, the flow rates were able to be calculated and then averaged together. It seemed to be that the charcoal and the cloth has the smallest average flow rates, while the gravel and the sand had higher average flow rates. During the actual laboratory period, three different liquid substances were tested through the filter. The first was a blue copper solution. 100 mL was poured through the system and took a little above 5 minutes for the entire volume amount to be filtered through. The resulting color was a light, faint blue. This means that the filtration system was successful but not 100%. The next solution was a pink organic one. 100 mL was poured through the system and also took 5 minutes. The resulting color was a lighter pink, but still pretty saturated of a color. This means it was successful, but less than the blue. The final substance was an aluminum coated glass sphere substance, still 100 mL. The resulting liquid was still a pink, as a result of the previous dye left over that was poured through. Yet at the end of the 5 minutes, there were no particles left over, meaning that the aluminum was successfully eliminated. As a result, the copper solution was most successful, with the aluminum as well, and the organic being the least successful.