Introduction: Simple Diffusion Experiment

The simple diffusion experiment by Faisal Alwabel in Dhahran Ahliyya Schools MYP 9/C

Step 1: Research Question

How does temperature affect the rate of diffusion?

Step 2: My Hypothesis

•My hypothesis is that:

The lower the temperature of water the slower the diffusion rate inside the water and the longer the time will take, and the higher the temperature the faster diffusion rate inside the water and less time of diffusion in the beaker will take because of the increase of kinetic energy in the particles so they will mix more quickly.

Step 3: Variables (Dependent / Independent / Controlled)

Dependent variable: Rate of diffusion

•Independent variable: Temperature

•Controlled variables: Food coloring drop, time, amount of water for each glass, amount of food coloring

Step 4: Background Research

•What is diffusion? Diffusion is the movement of molecules from a place where they are at a higher concentration to an area with a low concentration, and it works by itself without doing anything to it like shaking and stirring.

•How Does diffusion work? In gases and liquids, the particles move randomly from place to place, and the particles collide with each other or with their container and then the particles are spread to the whole container.

Step 5: Materials

•The materials I will use are:

•* 3 Beakers

•* One cold water, One boiled / hot water, One room temp (30 Celsius)

•* Food coloring

* Timer

Step 6: Procedure

•1. First of all, I made sure that I had 3 regular spoons for 3 food coloring drops.

•2. Next, I Made sure that every water was in the right temp where one boiled water, one room temp 30 C and one cold water approximately 15 Degrees and they were all 300 ml.

•3. Then I prepared the timer for 5 mins.

•4. After that, I put one food coloring drop for every beaker and start the timer

•5. After 5 minutes, I took photos of all 3 beakers and watched the whole thing.

Step 7: Data

•I saw that the food coloring drip only took 30 seconds to collide with the hot / boiled water, I looked at the room temperature water 30 Degrees C needed approximately 2.5 minutes for the food coloring to collide with it, and finally the 5 minutes finished BUT the food coloring did not collide well with the cold water and had many low concentration areas.

Step 8: Data Analysis

•I found out that there is a huge difference between the three beakers (except for the hot and room temp), I saw that the food coloring and hot water collided really quickly and by that I can say that the rate of diffusion increases as the kinetic energy increases. Similarly, the beaker with the 30 Degrees water was close to the boiled water and all molecules collided with the food coloring but took 2 minutes more. Lastly the cold water, the cold water needed more than 5 minutes to collide but still not all molecules had collided with the food coloring drip and there were many areas with low concentration.

Step 9: Results

•After finishing the experiment, I can start with the results that came out and they are:

•Diffusion rate increases as kinetic energy increases and by that I can say that the boiled / hot water has the highest rate of diffusion because of the kinetic energy inside it.

•The diffusion rate in cold water would be really low because of the small amount of kinetic energy in it so water molecules would not collide with the food coloring.

Step 10: Conclusion

•In conclusion, as you remember my research question was that “How does temperature affect the rate of diffusion?” and I answered it in my data analysis where the rate of diffusion in hot water is high and the rate of diffusion increases as the kinetic energy increases.

•And even my hypothesis was right where I stated that the higher the temperature the faster diffusion rate inside the water and less time of diffusion in the beaker will take because of the increase of the kinetic energy in the particles so they will mix more quickly.

Step 11: Application

•This is a really important subject to study in science because diffusion happens all the time where the diffusion of oxygen and carbon dioxide gas occurs in our lungs, the diffusion of water, salts, and waste that occurs in the kidneys.

Step 12: Evaluation

•The research ATL Skill was really helpful in this experiment wherein background research I had to search for some information to help you understand the process going on and that will happen in the experiment.