Paragraph 1 The objective of the experiment is to test; how will water temperature affect the rate of reaction of an alka-seltzer tablet? The dependent variable of the experiment is the dissolving time. When an alka-seltzer tablet starts to fizz it begins to dissolve, due to the citric acid and sodium bicarbonate the tablet contains (Clark, “Why does Alka-Seltzer fizz?). When the tablet is in solid form, the two ingredients are not yet mixed together, but by dropping the tablet in water, a chemical reaction is catalyzed between them, creating a fizzing sensation (Clark, “Why does Alka-Seltzer fizz?). When the sodium bicarbonate is placed in water, it begins to split apart and form bicarbonate and sodium ions (Science Buddies, Carbonation Countdown: …show more content…
Place the thermometer into the water and let it settle in order to ensure that the temperature has remained at 41°C.
Carefully remove four Alka-Seltzer tablets from the package making sure not to crack any.
With the timer ready, place one tablet into the cup of water. Immediately start the timer when the tablet comes in contact with the water. Stop the timer as soon as the reaction has stopped taking place and no remaining tablet is visible. Record the data.
Empty out the beaker and water. Repeat steps 18-26 three more times, until four trials have been completed in total.
Clean up and return the materials.
Paragraph 3
In my bar graph I presented the relationship between the temperature of water and an Alka-Seltzer’s rate of reaction time when dropped into the water. The data proves that if the temperature of water increases, then the reaction rate of an Alka-Seltzer tablet will increase as well. I presented the data of the temperatures; 21°C, 41°C, and 28°C for each four trials and their averages. The graph presents the trend of the rate of reaction decreasing when the temperature is lower. This is shown through the average rate of reaction time being 89.5 seconds for the cold water, while in the hot water the tablet’s average reaction time was 41 seconds. Based on the graph, you can see a significant change between the two times, the average cold water time’s bar have a vast change from the average hot water time’s bar. The reason I chose a bar graph to display my data was to be able to compare distinct categories in an organized manner, while having the changes between them