Lighten Up On The Sugar Experiment

The topic of this experiment is, “Lighten up on the Sugar”. In this experiment, the scientists are trying to figure out whether there is a method to measure the sugar content of any liquid by manipulating light and refraction. As for the variables, the independent variable would be the different drinks measured, and the dependent variable would be the angle of refraction and sugar content. Constants include using the same materials and amount of each liquid. For a control, water with a preset sugar content serves as a key to compare each drink to. The units for the drinks are milliliters, while the sugar content is in grams. Before starting the experiment, the scientists hypothesized that if the light from the laser pointer is aimed at

Density, “mass of a unit volume of a material substance” is found using the formula d=M/V where M and V are the mass and volume. Scientists express density with grams per cubic centimeter as the units. With that in mind, a liquid with base volume can become even more dense when more mass occupies the liquid through increasing grams of sugar, or salt present in the solution. The acrylic prism which will hold the liquid will be useful in calculating the sugar content. Prisms are defined as a “transparent material cut with precise angles and plane faces useful for analyzing and reflecting light” (Britannica, 2013). Through internal reflection, prisms can alter the direction of light. If a beam of light passed through a prism, the direction of the beam is deflected twice: as it enters the prism and then exits. Both deflections add up to what we know as the angle of minimum

As such, the amount in which light bends when passing from air to water depends on the speeds at which it travels through both mediums. When different density solutions are put into play, light travels faster in the less dense solutions than in the denser ones. The angle of incidence is “...the angle at which a ray of [light] strikes a [medium].”, while the angle of refraction is “...the ray’s angle of travel after entering the [medium].” (Rehmeyer, 2011). The index of refraction “...represents the ratio between the speed of light in a vacuum and the speed of light in the medium of interest.”, and the surface normal is “...a line perpendicular to the surface the light interacts with.” (Olson, 2016). These terms can be applied to Snell’s Law, which is “...a relationship between the path taken by a ray of light in crossing the boundary or surface of separation between two connecting substances and the refractive index of each.” (Britannica School, 2017). Snell’s Law states that the index of refraction of the first medium multiplied by the sine of the angle of incidence is equal to the index of refraction of the second medium multiplied by the sine of the angle of refraction. With this concept, it is clear that the greater the index of refraction of the beverages, the more the laser will