PROBLEM STATEMENT:

You and your mother are having a discussion. She prefers to use green skinned limes rather than yellow

skinned limes when making limeade as she claims they are less acidic. Plan and design an experiment to

determine whether your mother’s claim is accurate.

HYPOTHESIS:

The green skinned lime is more acidic than the yellow skinned lime therefore yellow skinned limes should be

used to make limeade as they are less acidic.

AIM:

To determine which is more acidic between green and yellow skinned limes.

APPARATUS AND MATERIALS:

 Green skinned lime
 Yellow skinned lime
 Sucrose
 Distilled water
 Universal pH paper
 2- 50ml beakers
 2 petri dishes
 Stirring Rod
 Dropper

PROCEDURE:

1. Measure and pour 10 ml of green skinned lemon into a beaker and label it ‘A’
2. Measure and pour 10 ml of yellow skinned lemon into the other beaker and label it ‘B’

3. Add 2 ml of sucrose to each beaker and stir with stirring rod

4. Add 25 ml of water into each baker and stir well

5. Label one petri dish ‘A’ and the other ‘B’

6. Using the dropper, place 10 drops of the mixture from beaker ‘A’ into petri dish ‘A’ then, place 10 drops of

mixture from beaker ‘B’ into petri dish ‘B’

7. Place a strip of universal pH into liquid in petri dish ‘A’ and a different strip in petri dish ‘B’. Observe and

record any reactions or changes in a table

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 to ensure correct results.

9.

VARIABLES:

MANIPULATED - green and yellow skinned lime

RESPONDING – Universal pH paper

CONSTANT – size of beaker, size of petri dishes, size of dropper

DATA TO BE COLLECTED:

OBSERVATIONS

Test 1 Test 2

Universal pH paper in beaker A

Universal pH paper in beaker B

EXPECTED RESULTS:
Universal pH paper turned orange in petri dish A. In petri dish B the universal pH paper turned yellow which

indicated that the green skinned lime is more acidic than the yellow skinned ones.

TREATMENT OF DATA:

(Two pieces of Universal pH paper)

GENERAL STATEMENT:

A green skinned lime was proves to be more acidic than a yellow skinned lime.

POSITIVE STATEMENT:
Green skinned lime turned Universal pH paper orange and yellow skinned lime turned Universal pH paper

yellow, therefore the hypothesis is valid and should be accepted.

NEGATIVE STATEMENT:

Green skinned lime didn’t turn Universal pH paper a darker color than the yellow skinned lime therefore the

hypothesis is invalid and should be rejected.

INTERPERATATION OF DATA:

PRECAUTIONS:

 All apparatus was washed to avoid contamination and wrong color changes of litmus.

 All measurements were taken at eye level to avoid parallax error

SOURCES OF ERROR:

 Measurements may not have been taken at eye level

 Green skinned lime could have already been turning yellow which would lead to inaccurate pH readings


ASSUMPTIONS:

 The green skinned lime wasn’t in the process of turning into a yellow skinned lime

 Yellow skinned lime was fully ripe

LIMITATIONS:

 Yellow skinned lime wasn’t completely ripe or green skinned lime wasn’t completely green and started too

ripe.