Borax Crystals

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Abstract!

Problem: Do borax crystals grow best in a fridge (42 degrees), counter(72 degrees), or the outdoors(50 degrees when I did it- will vary)?

Hypothesis: I think they will grow best in the warmest area.

Materials:

Borax (20 mule team)
3 glasses, jars, or cups
Boiling water
Tablespoon
3 pencils
String or floss (must be thin)
Refrigerator
Tin Foil

Procedure

Fill the glasses ¾ full of boiling water. (Use pot holders or hot pads!)
Add the borax and stir. Keep doing his until it doesn't dissolve anymore!
Tie the strings to the pencils. The strings should touch the bottom of the glass.
Set the pencil on top of the glass with the string hanging down in to the water.
Put some tin foil on each glass like a lid.
Set a glass in the fridge.
Set another glass on a counter.
Set the last glass somewhere safe outside.
Wait 72 hours for the crystals to form.
Take out the crystals and record the length and diameter of the biggest part of the crystals.

Results:

The fridge crystals were 12 cm long and 1 cm in diameter.

The counter crystals were 10 cm long and .5 cm in diameter.

The outdoor crystals were 4.5 cm long, and .25 cm in diameter.

Conclusion:

The fridge crystals turned out to be the biggest crystals. The outdoor ones were smaller than the counter ones probably because the weather conditions. The weather kept varrying and blew the tin foil off a few times. I had to replace it.

The counter ones were fine and undisturbed. The fridge ones were fine too. To get better resuls on the outdoor ones, you could conduct the experiment in better weather.