Science fair help please?

Question

ok i am planning on doing a proyect on the decay of bones from soda, and im going to test this by submerging chicken bones on soda and checking for decay. I want to know if this is a good way of testing it or not. any suggestions?. Also does anyone know websites on what soda is and the ingredients and how it causes things to decay? if so, can you give me a couple of websites i could check out

-Thanks =)

Answer 1

rebelliousgris9,

Sounds like a neat project! Doing an experiment, no matter what kind of experiment it is, is a great way to learn about science. Here are some suggestions for you:

In science, you always want to find a good way to measure whatever it is you want to detect. In your case, you want to measure the decay of a bone, so you have to think about what you could measure about the bone that would detect the removal of bone. If the soda really does remove material from the bone, that would mean the bone has less mass. So what you could do is leave the bone in soda for say, a day, and then measure the mass of the bone to see if it has changed. Then after two days, you could measure the mass again, and collect data on the mass of the bone at different times.

To do this, you will need a balance that you can use to weigh the bone. If you don't have one at home, you can ask your teacher about it, and he/she can help you find one. But remember that your are the scientist here... this is just a suggestion, and you can use whatever you want to measure your bone and you can do it however often you like.

It would also be a good idea, as one of the other people said, to put a bone in a different substance and do the same thing. That way you can compare the effect of different materials.

Keep in mind that if you don't see any change in the mass of the bone, or whatever property you measure, it doesn't mean that your experiment was a failure! You still found something out, so when you finish your project just be sure to report whatever your data tells you, and you will be fine. You are the scientist and you are the one who designed your experiment, so be confident and trust your results! In science, the result of any experiment tells you something, even if it's not what you expect.

So about soda... soda is a mixture of water, sugar, carbon dioxide gas, and some other chemicals that either give it flavor, or help keep it fresh until it gets to grocery stores for people to buy. The thing that makes soda corrosive to some things is that it's an acid, which I'll bet you've heard of before. The acid comes from the carbon dioxide being dissolved in water. If you see any changes in things that are immersed in soda, it is probably the acid that's doing it.

I hope this helps you with your project! Remember to think about other factors that might affect your results, trust the data that you get, and HAVE FUN!

Answer 2

That is a cool experiment however I don't know if it translate to real life. When we drink soda we don't sumerge our bones in ti. We do get some chemicals on them though.

Your question on what is soda is a great one. What is it? Who knows, they won't tell. All we know is that is a bunch of chemicals. It has lots of sugar and CO2.

So here is my sugestion of how to do the experiment.

#1 is to get similar bones. That is that all of them re relatively the same size. If they are open or not may matter.

#2 try various sodas. Perhaps, try 1 can of Coke, 1 Can of sprite and 1 can of Red Bull. You will also need some controls. To do this use 1 can of plain water and maybe 1 can of juice like orange juice. The good kind not that cheap Hi-C which is mostly colored water.

#3 fotograph each bone before they are pit in the substance. That way you can compare them later. Do not rely on your memory. It is too sugestive and extremly unreliable.

#4 Make sure that all containers have the same amount of liquid from each substance. Like I said 1 can. Not half a can or 1.5 cans. What ever the amount all 5 containers must be the same.

#5 All 5 bones must be submerge in the subtance for the same amount of time.

#6 you can make frequent observations. For example, lets say the experiments lasts 5 days. Well you can check on the bones once a day at the same time of the day. So, you could divide your observations every 24 hours. Remember to take pictures and label them properly as to what time the pictures was taken at. Remember to do this to all bones at the same time. Write your own observations based on what you notice each day. Maybe one substace erodes the bones faster but you may notice that once the bone is broken the errosion ocurs faster than when it wasn't. I mean, I don't know what is going to happen but it would be interesting to note what other factors affect the bone. Also, the temperature of the liquid is important. I would suggest ambient rom temperature to make thing easier. This is why I said to choose bones that are of comparable size.At the end of the experiment use both the pictures and the observations you did to come to your own conclusion.

Answer 3

The test is good. However, you should make sure to have a control. That is, in addition to submerging a bone in soda, you should also submerge a bone in distilled water or even leave it in air. That way you would actually have a variable (what substance the bone is submerged in), and can compare the difference.

Answer 4

try howstuff works and wikipedia, other than that your test may be good enough.

Answer 5

hope this helps