im doing a science project on best laundry detergent?

Question

Waht else could i wash the shirts in but a washer?My teacher said i cant use washer but when im ready to test the detergents what else could i was it in?????????

well hes gona tell me more info tomrow but im trying to figure out

ok i will say which laundry detergent is the most effective or however u spell it lol

Answer 1

Don't use the word "Best" when your doing a science project.
What does "Best" mean? It could very well be a matter of opinion. Rephrase the problem without using "Best" or "Better".

You need to measure the results of using ___ detergent against some absolute scale of "cleanliness". But how clean a shirt is, is hard to tell exactly when the differences are slight.

Even the topic you are trying to pursue could use some work. In the experiment you need to test the effects of only one variable at a time on the clothes (that variable being the detergent used) and nothing else. Even though you might take pains to do everything the same, washing clothes is not something you can duplicate exactly over and over again. Washing a shirt one time might not be as effective as washing it another time just due to the fact that the water's temperature was different or that you left it in the washing machine for a slightly longer time, ..., or anything. There can only be one variable which changes at a time.

So, in summary, rephrase your problem, come up with some absolute way of judging an article of clothing's cleanliness, and figure out how you can wash the clothes the exact same way each time (except for the different types of detergent).
Or it might be better to choose a different topic if there is still time.


EDIT:
Well, I am not sure that “most effective” would be a good choice either unless you have some way to measure what exactly “effective” means against some type of standard of measure.
To illustrate my point,
For example…lets say you were doing a project on how high a ball will bounce (the independent variable being the type of ball [tennis ball, golf ball, base ball, …]) when all else is held constant. Your problem might be, “What type of ball bounces the highest?” In this experiment you will measure the height the ball bounces, and to do this you will use some standard of measurement…like a ruler. Everyone all around the world could take out a ruler and perform the exact same experiment you did and (in theory) should get the same results because everyone’s rulers measure the same length.
But how do you measure how clean a shirt is? You can’t use a ruler that is for sure. You might do it by color…but then do you take into account colors fading away after being washed? And even still, the difference in just how “clean” / “effective” a shirt / detergent is might be very small and difficult to measure just by looking at it.

Also, you will need to stain the article of clothing to the same conditions each and every time. You will need to deposit the same amount of stain material on the cloth to give each detergent an equal chance to get the clothing clean.

Answer 2

Maybe your teacher is trying to give you a hint. Maybe you should try a different science project. Or you could do it the hard way. Hand wash or soak each shirt in a container. Like each shirt has its own bucket or somthing and this prevents cross contamination.. Good luck..