Investigating the effect of

concentration on the rate of diffusion

In this experiment, we tested how long it took for agar cubes to turn colourless in different
concentrations of hydrochloric acid.

The independent variable: The Hydrochloric acid concentration

The dependent variable: The rate of diffusion

The constant variables: The size of the agar cubes (1x1x1), the amount of hydrochloric acid
(20ml)

The procedure:
1. First, assemble the 1x1x1cm agar cubes containing phenolphthalein indicator and 0.1
M NaOH solution.
2. Get the 5 different concentrations of HCl solutions, and pour them into the beakers.
3. Make sure you have five different concentrations of 20cm3 HCl solution in each
separate beaker.
4. a) Place one of the agar cubes into one of the five solutions and start the stopwatch.
b) Place all three agar cubes into one of the five solutions of HCL at the same time
and start the stopwatch.
5. Right when the cube/s turn clear/transparents stop the stopwatch.
6. a) Repeat the experiment 3 times for each HCl solution.

The Result Table of the Experiment:

Time (s) HCL First Trial Second Trial Third Trial Average
Conc. (M)

0.1 28 30 27 28.3

0.3 21 20 22 21

0.5 17 16 16 16.3

0.7 15 15 16 15.3

0.9 14 17 19 16.6
Some possible methodological errors and suggestions for improvement are:

» The size of the cubes must be exact for the experiment to be precise, this includes the
method of preparing them
» The exact amount of HCL in each beaker
» The complication of finding the exact time when each cube diffuses (When to start, and
when to end stopwatch)
» The process of determining the rate of diffusion
» The temperature of the HCL
» If doing all three agar cubes at the same time, make sure they all fall into the HCL at the
same time.