Report done!

I've already written my report... Phew... Now I am just adding pictures to it. Such a great relief.

Last two set of data

The last two sets of data are in the table inserted into this entry. I just got it! But it was really hard work tried to hold up the pieces of glass while trying to measure the UV with the other hand. I had to go downstairs and into the backyard because at this time the sun doesn't reach our balcony anymore.

But all the hardwork has finally come to mean something: the trend in this last two sets are almost exactly as I thought they would be. The lowest percentage of UV through the glass (i.e. the 15mm thickness) is around the 60's. It is interesting, isn't it? Two light sources resulting in two different trends. I think it is because of the different wavelengths the two carries - the halogen lamp has got to produce longer wavelengths than the sunlight (or otherwise I would be very sunburnt considering the number of hours I spend under the lamp). I am still not too sure whether the more energy a wave carries (i.e. the shorter its wavelength) the more penetrative it is. X ray and gamma ray are shorter than UV and are more penetrative (I think), but then UVA is more penetrative than UVB (that I have gotten from my research). So there mightn't be a definite patter in the matter. Anyway, that's what I got to find out in my research this afternoon! Once I finish the discussion (mind you, it is suggested to be 3-4 pages), all I got to do is to insert pictures and diagrams (which I assume would be easier than writing the actual report).

Best luck to me!!

Some little notes

I've finally got a sunny weekend to finish my experiment. The sunlight looks really strong (and very bright too, I wouldn't go outside without a hat had I not known the UV reading) and I went for a testing. But it turns about to be just about ranging from 1 to 3. Thus it seems rather unstable (just seems) and without a precise nude reading I cannot calculate the percentage of UV that goes through the glass. So I decide to wait a little and the sunlight should register around 3 at noon (the first day the sunlight was 3, and it was only 10 o'clock with some cloud cover). By then the experiment should be good.

I really should do this experiment during summer for the best results. The sunshine now is not so strong. But since Sydney has a low altitude, I guess summer would not help that much anyways. Ah, how I hope at this moment that I live on the top of mount Everest (the higher you go, the stronger the UV).

SRP Researches

Oh god. The SRP is due like in six days time! And I've only just finished the basic draft for my introduction (Ms. Zhang said that we have to reference every sentence even if the whole paragraph comes from one source, so I have a lot more referencing to do). But I guess most of the research has been done by now (unless you count the occational add ins to the discussion).

The most sensational bit was that I actually discovered that the type of lamp I used for the experiment is called halogen lamp (because it is filled with halogen gases like chlorine etc. and not the argon and hydrogen mixture -?- you get in a regular incandescent bulb. It is more efficient). And there are many sources that confirm the fact that it does produce light shifted to the blue end of the spectrum (so it produces UV of the larger wavelengths). This was really important for me as I was at one stage doubting the accuracy of my apparatus. I just randomly gave it a shot at the lamp (to be honest, I didn't expect any UV index other than 0). When it says that the lamp produces UV, I doubted that maybe it was just picking up the brightness of the light (in that case, the apparatus cannot measure the actual amount of UV, but only the brightness of sunlight - which in a way can also tell you how strong the UV is. But that would mean my experiment is stuffed. I know the label says it measures UV, but it was bought on internet - can't be too careful!). But now it turns out that I was just worrying for nothing, so, phew....

I've just been realising that I would need two more sets of data gathered under the sun for my experiment to be better. When I drew up a scatter graph using my results, I discovered that the three sets of data collected under the lamplight has a linear trend that goes straight down. Its lowest point (i.e. when the glass thickness equals to 15mm) is around 28 or so. But the set of data collected under the sun (which was the first set that I did) has its lowest point at around 60. And its general trend was to decrease sharply then the gradient was becoming very slight. So I just want to see if any other data collected under the sun would be like that - if they are going to be, it might be due to the different wavelengths of UV each light source produces (the halogen lamp mainly produces UVA that is just off the violet end of visual spectrum where as the sunlight we get here contain UVB as well. Soda lime glass would absorb the shorter wavelengths, which might be why there is a difference in data. Or it could be that since the sunlight experiment was my first, maybe I didn't handle the apparatus correctly? I don't know, but it's exciting to see the results come up). I need a weekend to do it, because it is only around noon when the UV is the strongest (a research proven fact) - so that the results can be scaled enough to be analysed, otherwise it would be just a whole bunch of zeroes that can tell me nothing.

I don't know what I have put onto the final blog. But Ms Zhang just said to update, so that part has already been taken care of. Hopefully I can finish the report before Sunday (so that I get one day to have fun... oh no! I still have to study for the rotation test and prepare the English and History assessments!! I just hope that term 2 ends as soon as possible) and I've planned to hand it in on Wedensday because I don't want to get deductions simply because the train was late or I sleeped in or an alien took my paper on the way to school.

Data

Sorry, it has taken longer than expected to get all the data assembled and put into tables. I wanted to do a graph, but then the Excel somehow drew two lines instead of one - so I have to wait for my Mom's assistance. So that will take a while. The data seems not so linear when I draw it out - I suppose that is partly because the apparatus is not very sensitive and that the experiment needs more trials. But however inaccurate it may be, the data still illustrates my point that the thicker the glass is, the less UV gets through. So I suppose that would be alright.

The SRP is due so soon! I am so scared.

Epiphany!! (did I spell it correctly?)

Well, as far as the data collecting goes - not very well. I find that I would need an exceedingly sunny day in order to get a UV reading that is significant enough to create useful comparisons between the reading taken in the sun and the reading taken behind the glass. Unfortunately these past couple of weeks have all been very cloudy and rainy, so my experiment was impossible to be conducted. I confess that I did not foreseen this development (Sydney seems to be always sunny when my apparatus was still in China, and I dare say that it will continue to be sunny once all the SRP reports have been handed in). So I was incredibly stressed for a couple of days (while secretly relieved that I have an legitimate reason of doing something else). BUT... I finally found a way around this problem!

You see, sometime last week I was wandering around, hoping that my UV metre might pick up some radiation from the lukewarm sunlight. I flipped on my lamp in order to record any possible findings. And guess what? The light coming out of the lamp had a UV measure of 1! (on a partially sunny day - like the day when I took my first set of data - it is about 3) That struck me immediately as an alternate source of ultraviolet radiation. Then I unscrewed the glass covering on the lamp (because from my experiment and researches I know that the glass would make a difference), and the UV read somewhere between 2 and 3. So then I was able to continue my experiment (not to mention that I had to sit in a uncomfortable position for many minutes, doing my experiment under the constant interferencing of my little sister and complaints from my parents). And I got 2 other sets of data. Yay! Now I'm finally done with the experiment (I could wait for a sunny day and record the readings just to make the data more accurate, but I won't count on that too much), I can proceed with researches etc.

The report is due like 2 weeks from now!! And I've only done like half the research for my introduction! And I have lots of other homeworks too and am really stressed. So I'll hope that I can just somehow magically finish this report and would be blessed to never see it again.

I'll post the data onto the next blog after I do all the tables (seriously, the word processing function on the blog is so shabbily poor).

First set of raw data

A close up of the UV-meter. It was indoors at the time, so the measurement reads zero.

The measurement with two layers of glass

The measurement with all five layers of glass

Table of Data

I got my UV-meter on the 12th! Much obliged to my mom’s friend (although I had some complaints about her not coming back earlier… I apologize for that here); I will write her down in my acknowledgments if she gives me permission to do so. It is quite small actually, and shuts down by itself after 2 minutes. But I am very happy as it actually works despite its, well, appearance. There is an oval patch underneath the screen that looks like those solar electric battery things. And I guess that is how it detects the UV radiation. Anyway, the photo of the UV-meter will on the blog so that what I am talking about will be clearer.

I just took some measurements of the UV at 10:25, when the weather was sunny with around 10%-20% cloud cover over the horizon. The UV radiation level from my balcony is 3 on the apparatus. And through 15mm of glass it is around 1-2; and if the glass thickness decreases, the UV would increase. I set up the glass on a boiling pan (is that the right name?) with the biggest piece on the bottom. So I just have to stick the UV-meter underneath the glass and add glass pieces on the top to achieve the different thicknesses. It is very convenient and fast: in the beginning I was holding the glasses on one hand and the trying to measure with the other, and if I am doing multiple pieces the glass keeps falling down (coming to think of it that was pretty dangerous as the glass pieces are scraps and the edges are fairly sharp). So, anyway, from the present data my hypothesis seems to be supported. The table of date and my set up pictures are appended above. The decimal readings such as 1.5 mean that the UV reading is changing between two numbers, like 1 and 2.

It is so good to be finally doing the experiment after so many weeks thinking about it. It is turning cloudy now, I can’t seem any direct sunshine from where I am. I need to take measurements on a cloudy day too (multiple samples always make the results more accurate, right?). So I might do it this afternoon or next week (the weather forecast said that it is going to be cloudy and raining most of the time then).

Second Blog Submission - the Plan of Experiment

Picture 1

Picture 2

Aim: To investigate the relationship between the transparency of glass to UV radiation and the thickness of glass.

Hypothesis: The thicker the glass, the less transparent it is to UV radiation.

Equipment:

- Clear 3mm thick soda-lime glass (x5)

- UV monitor (x1)

Risk assessment (table):
See Picture 1 above.

Method:

1. Hold one piece of the glass perpendicular to the sunlight

2. Put the UV monitor under the shade formed by the glass

3. Measure the UV radiation level and record

4. Repeat procedure 1-3 four times. Add a piece of glass on top of the original glass UV filter each time.

5. Repeat procedure 1-4 4 times in a similar weather condition. Test 5 weather conditions in total, thus a total of 25 repetitions of experiment.

Results (table design):
See Picture 2 above.

The Climograph

I checked with Ms. Zhang today, some parts of my draft were wrong. So now I've done it again and am posting it. It was not actually that hard to put the y-axis of the temperature on the right hand side - I just made two copies of the graph, then cropped one so that only the scale remained and then grouped the scale with the other graph (which, of course, has to be cropped so that the original scale is not showing). Although it sounds real easy, it took a lot of adjusting and other stuff. And the temperature graph is less clear than the rainfall one (only slightly), maybe because I screen shot it too many times (it's real useful to put together two images that you can't otherwise put together). But the exercise is really meant to test our uploading skills so I thought it's alright (plus it's only a little unclear).

And the image can be enlarged by clicking on it.

The climograph DRAFT

Okay, just making it very clear that this is just a bit of extras, not for marking or anything!! So if anything is wrong, don't blame me. ^_^ It's just that I read Ms. Zhang's blog and she talked about a climate graph that we need to do. Well, our class missed out on that lesson, I think. But I also think that it's best to catch up with everyone. And I again specify that this one is just my version of how to do it, not the official or accepted way. And Ms. Zhang if you happen to see this post, don't mark it please!!! Okay, here it goes.

I got the glass!

Back again after the long and lazy holiday! And although I emailed the glass cutters on like the Tuesday of the first week, none of them replied! Probably because my order was too small to be a welcomed customer... So my genius Mom (although I rarely admit it to her face) had the idea of collecting scrap glasses from factories.

Thus I surfed the yellowpages again and spent the whole of Friday morning going to the addresses I recorded. But none of them had any ready scraps to give away. Then again, it was my Mom who drove us to a glass cutting shop where she had once shopped for the car side mirror. There they recommended me to Hurlstone Park Glass & Glazing, where they gave me five pieces of clear, uncoated, 3mm thick standard glass for free! Thanks a million guys! They are now stored safely away in my wardrobe to avoid the accidental discovery by my baby sister.

So now I have to wait until May 12th for my Mom's friend to come back from China with my UV meter. And the experiment can finally commence after all this talk (there is going to be more, of course).

Experiment finally underway - just starting though

With the approval from Ms. Zhang, and after three lazy holiday days, I am finally starting my experiment!! I just sent emails to two of the local glass cutters, so that I can know if they can give a set of glass cut to different thicknesses. My Mom's friend leaves for China today, she comes back in about Week 2 of next term and will bring with her my UV meter. If I have that, the experiment would be done in no time!! But to be on the safe side, when I get the glass shields I'll start experimenting to paper testers first. Then later I can add it in as a repetition of experiment to make the result more accurate.

And I have to hand in the experiment plan in Week 4 next term; I don't even know how to do it yet! I suppose there is a lot still to learn...

And it's still nine forty in the morning!! Haha, I love it when we end daylight saving, it make me feel like I've cheated time. Time is so interesting, I would have done something with it for SRP if I'm smarter, more knowledgeable and have more fundings.

A slight ray of hope

Ok, I have found UV meters on a Chinese website. And my mom has friends who will be going back to China this school holiday, so they can pick it up for me! I really hope that it will work. I hope that they can all get their air tickets, receive the meter promptly and at the right place, the customs wouldn't block it and that when it finally gets to me it is not broken or problematic. I know this sound very paranoid, but I had been unlucky in the past...
And my back-up plan - the paper pieces, I've also got a better idea. I will use newspaper pieces. This gives two advantage - I can buy multiple copies cheaply and that the newpaper paper would change colour most easily (since they print so much of them everyday, and newspapers lose their value the very next day so there is no point printing them too expensively). I put out a paper for a test, the paper didn't fade in ink though, it just got very yellowish. But that's an indicator of exposure to UV nonetheless.

Frustration over Equipment

Well, as I wrote in my last entry, I'm going to do the UV experiment. Although I said that I CAN use the paper pieces, I still hope that I can get some sort of equipment so that the experiment would be easier and quicker. I think a spectrophotometer can help me out here. But they are generally like $500 plus, so not very realistic... Another option would be the domestic UV detectors that tell you the UV level so you can put on your sunscreen and stuff. They are cheaper and can give me the UV degree in a number (instead of the UV sensitive bead that can only change colour). The problem with these is that I did not find any in Sydney via internet. I found it in England, Europe, USA and China!!! (but I don't want to wait for it to be shipped here and shipping also costs) I just don't get why we don't have any in Australia - since we are perhaps the most sun-burnt country in the world. It's just frustrating.

First Blog Submission

Experiment Idea
The experiment will be investigating whether the thickness of glass will affect the amount of ultraviolet radiation passing through it. From my research, glass does block part of the UV in the sunlight and thickness is a factor. Glass of same composition but different thickness will be set up under the sun with a UV detector underneath it to record the differences. Glass should be obtained easily and since the experiment does not require much, the cost should not be high. And the glass will be a dome or a box shape to ensure the complete covering of the tested object – to prevent the changing angle of sunlight throughout the day making a difference on the results. If a UV detector cannot be found in shops (which, I think, will happen; because I cannot recall seeing any UV detectors in shops), I will put pieces of colored paper under each glass shade to test UV radiation. Also from my research, UV radiation stimulates certain chemical reaction in dyes that makes them fade or change color. Thus, the piece of paper that receives the least radiation will retain most of its color and a conclusion can be made. I can borrow the shades of color books in paint shops to further compare the colors of the paper pieces if the difference is hard to be distinguished.

But if using the paper pieces, the experiment time will be a lot longer than if I had a detector; I will use multiple samples all at one time to save time running the experiment. This experiment is easily controlled and should not be too hard to conduct.

Variables
Independent – thickness of glass shading the paper pieces

Dependent – the amount of fading in each piece of paper

Controlled:
- The glass quality, i.e. composition, chemicals, coatings etc.
- The capacity of the glass box/domes – just to be fair
- The time the papers are exposed to sunlight
- The place the papers are placed – has to have similar sun exposure
- The type of papers
- The color of the papers – certain shades of color (such as black) absorb more energy from sun, so difference in color might alter the results
- The area of the papers

Changes again...

I decided that the thermal experiment is too hard to make accurate and the new idea is in the next post - which is the one I'm sending in to Ms. Zhang.

New idea

Sorry to the people who actually read my posts, hopefully more than just me - I just changed my experiment idea again, hope it has not become too boring for you. I changed the nail rusting one because again, it is not that practical. There is only around 30% difference in density between iron and rust, so it might be hard to measure any changes. And that it takes a long time for a nail to corrode completely (just the surface rust makes too small a difference). So I decided not to do it. (Crying face...)

So my new favourite idea is that I would measure the change rate of temperature in different liquids - i.e. their specific heat capacity. It is practical enough, can be done in my kitchen with some bowls, a heat source and a thermometer. My only concern is that it is too basic and simple and not the standard expected in year 10 assessments. So I'll ask Ms. Zhang on Monday - which I hope I will remember because she's not at school Tuesday, Wednsday and Thursday. Crossed fingers that this idea is okay - I would hate to have to think up another one.

Another idea

Well, I tested the elasticity experiment today and it didn't go well - apparently the vibration of the rulers is too slow for a 400 Hz tester. It just could not pick up the vibration! (But I tried yelling at the apparatus and that worked extremely well. But human tests require 30 something people, and it's such as hassle to get people to agree to do it, sign the permission forms and not turning up).

So the new idea is that I would test the rate iron rusts in different PH solutions. I can use vinegar for acid and dishwash for base - and use water to water them down to different PH. I'll buy a new pack of nails, so that they are the same (a controlled variable) and put them in solutions of the same volume in closed similar containers (to prevent water from evaporating). And, I found out that rust is less dense than iron, so I would just measure how much the water rises up in the container (that's why they have to be the same shape and size) - the mass of the things in the containers don't change. Seems pretty nice. But I still have to find the difference in densities - if they are just 1 gram apart in a cubic metre then my experiment can't work!

It's so hard.......

The first blog marking is due next Thursday, and I still don't have a clear idea of what I am going to do. I think I am going to avoid the plant experiments and look to something involving physics - plants involve a lot more uncertainties and they also take a longer time to experiment with (so that I would have less time to repeat the experiement and thus less chance of an accurate result). But I just don't know what to do!

And this SRP has such harsh marking conditions - do this you'll get a zero, do that you'll get a zero. I'm just so scared that I'm going to do something wrong; I really wish to do well in Science - or my friends will never forgive me for changing school (may sound strange, but true).

I think I'll stick with the ruler vibration one. It's easy to do and the the equipments are easy to set up - I have the pitch measurer and rulers already have markings on them. Or I can even expand it into plastic rulers, wood rulers and metal rulers! Yes! That's a terrific idea! (I just asked Mum and Dad and they think it's good too). Coming to think about it, my friend in Year 11 also did something with sound frequencies. ^-^

Now I can stop worrying and I can finally go study for my History inclass essay tomorrow.

Idea Saved!

I asked Ms. Zhang last week (I am lazy and don't keep my blog updated that often - but I'll try!!), she said that we don't have to do something that no one has ever done before. So, I can have my experiment on colour spectrum and plant growth underway.

But setting it up can be a little bit of trouble - I would need an enclosed dark space, little cubicles for the plants (so different lights don't cross over each other and affect validity), many little plants, many little pots for the little plants, many light bulbs of different colours, racks or something to hold up the light bulbs, lots of wires and a lot of effort to water and observe the plants everyday. Since I'm leaning towards the lazy side of human nature (as mentioned above), so I might not end up doing this after all...

My dad gave me another idea though. He said if I can investigate whether glass (like the type found one your car windows) can block out UV radiation and whether glass thickness would affect the blockage. He got this idea because he always complained about sunburns while driving. This seems easier to test, the only thing hard to comeby might be some sort of meter that measures UV rays. Um... perhaps this can be easier?

The third idea now available is investigating the pattern of the relationship between the vibration frequence of metal ruler and the length used to vibrate. Is that easy to understand? Like when you hold one end of the ruler on the table and press down the other end and the ruler vibrates? I have a device that measures pitch in my instrument, so equipment would be of little problem - this is one of the main reasons I'm considering this. (Mr. Marussich actually gave me the idea - he did the ruler thing in class to explain about the stiffness of material. But he also said, "we will do this sometime"; which suggests to me that a lot of people had done this. But I really want something fresh and fun...)

I'll leave it at this now, I'll think about it more. It's actually pretty frustrating - I much prefer reading a book and learn that way. But I guess field work is ultimately more important.

Ideas!!! Ideas!!! Ideas!!!

Well, since this blog is all about the Year 10 Student Research Project, I would have to start it by having a problem to solve. Oh... This is very hard. What is an interesting, relatively easy and cheap problem for me to solve? I guess all the good ones have been done by the older generations (ah, the crime of youth).

I just got an idea today - whether different wavelength light would have an impact on the photosynthesis of plants. I know that now all light is used (or else the trees and things would be black), so... it might be a good experiement. It's also not very expensive to conduct.

But I just ran a search on Google, apparently my problem has already been solved.... (Crying face)

So now I have to go on thinking again....

hello world

hi!! you can come check out it if you don't think it's too boring!