Equipment
Results
- 6 water baths set at required temperatures (35,40,50,60,75,80)
- Thermometer
- Distilled water
- 10cm3 Syringe
- A beetroot
- Cork borer
- A ruler
- White tile
- Scalpel
- A small syringe
- Pipette
- Stopwatch
- Test tubes
- Test tube rack
- Colorimeter
- 7 Cuvettes
- Marker pen
- Forceps
- Pointing needle
- Prepare 6 water baths at temperatures; 30,40,50,60,70,80 degrees.
- Fill 6 test tubes with 10cm3 of distilled water and place a test tube in each water bath. Leave the test tube in for at least 5 minutes, so that the temperature inside the test tube is the same as the temperature in the the water bath.
- While the test tubes are in the water baths, cut cylinders out of the beetroot using the cork borers.
- Using the ruler make sure the cylinders are all the same length.
- Once 6 cylinders have been cut, wash each one with distilled water thoroughly.
- Now add a cylinder to each test tube using the forceps, ass they are added start the stopwatch and use the lap function as you add each cylinder.
- Leave the cylinders in the test tubes for 15 minutes each.
- As the 15 minutes ends use the mounting needle to extract the cylinder, put the cylinder to one side.
- Shake each test tube once the cylinder is taken out, and place in a test tube rack. Make sure to mark each test tube with the temperature it was in.
- Fill one cuvette with distilled water and set up the colorimeter to the transmission setting.
- Add 3cm3 of each solution to a cuvette, and take a reading using the colorimeter. Before each reading is taken, the colorimeter has to be calibrated using the distilled water.
- Record results and display in appropriate format on a graph.
Results
Conclusion
The results show that as temperature increases the transmission decreases. This means that the permeability of the membrane increased, as it allowed more pigment into the solution, which increased turbidity. Both the graphs have a Spearman's rank of 1 showing that they are in perfect agreement. Permeability increases due to an increased kinetic energy of the membrane increasing fluidity of the phospholipid bilayer, and therefore also permeability. Protein carriers in the membrane would have also denatured, this results in gaps in the membrane where pigment can escape.
Questions
2. The water was in the water bath for 5 minutes so that the temperature inside the test tube was the same as it was in the water bath.
3. We washed the beetroot so that any excess pigment in the outside was not present, this could have effected our results.
The results show that as temperature increases the transmission decreases. This means that the permeability of the membrane increased, as it allowed more pigment into the solution, which increased turbidity. Both the graphs have a Spearman's rank of 1 showing that they are in perfect agreement. Permeability increases due to an increased kinetic energy of the membrane increasing fluidity of the phospholipid bilayer, and therefore also permeability. Protein carriers in the membrane would have also denatured, this results in gaps in the membrane where pigment can escape.
Questions
- The variables controlled are;
- The size and shape of the cylinders of beetroot
- The time left in the water
2. The water was in the water bath for 5 minutes so that the temperature inside the test tube was the same as it was in the water bath.
3. We washed the beetroot so that any excess pigment in the outside was not present, this could have effected our results.