Science Report

Hypothesis: I hypothesis that the dye will end up diffusing the most because the dye (blue) particles
are a higher concentration which will end up adjoining the area where there are few of them. When the
food coloring hits the water the food coloring particles will end up going through all the water molecules
which will end up going to the spaces where there is a lower concentration, therefore this cycle will keep
on going until all areas have the same amount of water and food coloring particles, hence making the
water a thorough blue. I predict that the tea will end up diffusing just as quickly then the food coloring
because the tea used hot water when it was put in supposed to cold water. This effects the diffusion of the
tea because without the hot water it will take the tea longer because the tea molecules won’t move as
quickly hence making the diffusion slower. I think that the oil will diffuse the slowest because it isn’t a
high concentration compared to how much water there is.

2. My observation:

3. Describe the pattern of movement for each over 5 min

The food coloring had a pattern of getting darker as the time went by. I think this
happened because the more time you give the diffusion the more times the cycle can go by (*hypothesis)
and therefore can get darker. It seemed as the food coloring got darker around the middle of the beaker
first then worked in. The pattern of the tea over 5 minutes was similar to how you put cocoa in milk to
seep in the hot milk. The tea bag went in the boiling water then sat in the bottom of the beaker, going
through the cycle of diffusion, as the particles adjoining where there’s less concentration of the tea. After
5 minutes the tea started to affect the water by becoming the color and smell of the tea. The pattern of
movement for the oil had one particular pattern/movement. The oil stayed on the top of the water when
put in, it didn’t necessarily dissolve however I noticed that the oil did get bigger after some time. I think
that the oil got bigger because since the particles didn’t dissolve in the cold water and stayed on top of it,
the oil particles spread across the surface of the water. The cold water didn’t help either considering that
the particles will move more slowly.

4. Did you see any similarities or differences?

I observed that the food coloring and the tea bag dissolved in a similar way. The food
coloring got darker and changed the water as the time went by, similar with the tea bag. The food
coloring, when put in instantly started to release its particles to start off the diffusion process. This
observation is vastly similar to the tea bag process. The tea bag process was with boiled water; however
the tea bag still took some time for the particles to spread through the water (diffusion process). The tea
bag (in a few minutes later) made the water a dark brown colour but mostly in the bottom and sides like
the food coloring. The oil didn’t have any similarities between the food coloring and the tea bag because
it didn’t diffuse like the other substances. The oil stayed on top of the water but only for the particles to
spread across the top. This observation didn’t relate to either substance in any way.

5. Do you think this was a fair test? Why or why not.

I did not think this was a fair test because foremost we didn’t put the substances in the
beaker at exactly the same time. This affects the diffusion process because if the substances aren’t
dropped in the same time, one or two substances has more time to diffuse than others. which affects the
diffusion process. The second reason why I don’t think the test was fair because the tea bag got put in hot
water which makes the molecules move more quickly to dissolve and adjoin the areas where there’s low
concentration. This affects other substances because they got put in cold water. Cold water is worse for
diffusion because the molecules won’t move as quickly therefore diffuse slowly. Since the tea bag got to
be put in hot water it has an advantage because the oil and food coloring was put in cold water. Another
reason I didn’t think this was a fair test is because the substances didn’t get dropped in the beaker at
exactly the same time. This affects the diffusion because

6. What factors, if any, do you think affect diffusion?