What’s Your Color Concentration?

Challenge:
Your teacher has created six different combinations of
water and food coloring. Your challenge is to replicate
these combinations using the materials at your lab station.
Use the accompanying worksheet to record how many
drops of food coloring you use, and to calculate the
concentration of food coloring in each mixture.
Essence
A tiny drop of food coloring can have a big visual impact when added to a beaker of water.
Similarly, trace amounts of atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide are significantly
affecting on our planet. These concentrations are so small that scientists measure them
in a unit called parts per million. 1 part per million=.0001%

Materials
-4 Mystery liquids for the whole class to
view, of varying colors and intensity
Per group of 2 students:
-1 set of food coloring
-4 beakers, each containing 30 mL of water
Hints
-Add drops of color slowly and stir after
each one
-You may be required to use more than
one color per beaker
-How does adding drops of color impact
the intensity of the water?

2/2
 Data Sheet
Beaker Color #1 # of Concentration Color #2 (if # of Concentration
# droplets (PPM) used) droplets (PPM)

How to calculate PPM:

1. Calculate the percentage of each color in your beaker by
dividing by 600 (roughly the amount of water droplets in
your beaker)
2. Convert to PPM by multiplying by 10000.