Farewell

This is the end of my SIP! It might seem as a rather abrupt end, but all my analysis and conclusions have been done in my report, so I will leave my journal as it is. Lots of thanks goes to Ms Tan (Beng Chiak) for her timely advice and mentoring! Also to my partner Chin Ying for all the brain-storming, discussing and support.

It has been quite a journey for me, having to think of a creative experiment and doing things the true, scientific way. Collecting data from my experiment photos was one of the obstacles that presented itself along the way, and I tried colour charts and Photoshop. After many trials, thinking, and some helpful pointers from Ms Tan I decided to use hue in Photoshop, finally receiving some progress in my data collection and analysis. 


I also learnt that doing these experiments is about planning it, giving it your best try, then sitting down to think about what could have been improved, then giving it a go again. In my case I must admit I was a little hasty with certain things at first, but I righted the wrongs when I had the chance, namely my second experiment.

Most importantly, SIP has given me the chance to be independent, from the topic of investigation to the experiment itself and to the report. Something we can't really experience in normal lessons, can we? 


To end off: SIP has been harrowing in some ways but enlightening in many others.

Data of Experiments in Singapore

The following sets of data are taken from the photos of the experiments done in Singapore. The tables show how the duration of soaking in a particular pH has affected the hue of the vegetable slices, both purple cabbage and spinach.

Purple Cabbage

pH 4

Time (min)	0	30	60	90	120	150	180
Hue / ⁰	323	343	346	347	349	350	351

pH 7

Time (min)	0	30	60	90	120	150	180
Hue / ⁰	336	337	337	336	337	334	337

pH 9

Time (min)	0	30	60	90	120	150	180
Hue / ⁰	338	313	312	287	266	254	252

Spinach

pH 4

Time (min)	0	30	60	90	120	150	180
Hue / ⁰	101	103	88	76	72	73	71

pH 7

Time (min)	0	30	60	90	120	150	180
Hue / ⁰	95	93	95	95	96	94	94

pH 9

Time (min)	0	30	60	90	120	150	180
Hue / ⁰	106	97	96	96	94	92	92

Data of Experiments in China

Here are the raw data that I have collected, arranged into tables. This set of data taken from the photos of the experiments done in China. The tables show how each pH has affected the hue of the vegetable slices.

Purple Cabbage

pH Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Hue / ⁰	341	326	324	316	312	310	288	279	270	266	259

Carrot

pH Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Hue / ⁰	17	17	18	17	17	18	17	18	18	18	17

Green Pepper

pH Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Hue / ⁰	80	88	95	96	97	102	96	95	96	97	96

Spinach

pH Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Hue / ⁰	52	85	87	94	95	98	92	94	96	96	96

Radish

pH Value	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Hue / ⁰	7	350	350	350	350	352	352	351	349	351	346

Data Collection

I did some research on Hue, Saturation and Brightness so as to make an informed decision as to which value I would use to plot the graphs. 

Reference to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hue
http://www.ncsu.edu/scivis/lessons/colormodels/color_models2.html

Hue: a colour or shade

Saturation: amount of grey in the colour

Brightness: whether the colour is dim or bright

Therefore, the most relevant value to my experiment would be hue. As can be seen on this screen shot of the Photoshop colour picker, Hue, denoted by H, is measured in degrees. All the hues can be found on the multi-coloured bar. The pointer is at the bottom-most colour, red, also known as 0°. The degree then increases as the pointer moves up the bar till it reaches 0°/360° again.

The process of collecting data from the photographs is long and hard. I met a few problems along the way, as listed below.

1. Sometimes the slices are flipped the wrong way round, and this makes it hard to make the data consistent all the time. I always try to take the readings from the exact same spot from the very beginning.

2. As I have to take data from the same slice of vegetable every time, I need to identify which slice is which. This proves to be quite difficult, especially for the spinach because the colour is quite dark, therefore making it hard to discern between the slices.

3. For the experiment conducted in Singapore, I used purple cabbage and spinach, but obviously they are not exactly the same as the ones I used in China. This thus makes the effect of the acids and alkalis different for the two experiments.

4. Also, the colour picker is quite sensitive and even slight changes in light conditions during photos taking may affect readings. I have tried, especially for the experiment in Singapore, to maintain the same lighting to achieve better accuracy in my data.

 The collected data will be coming up next!

New Experiment 2: Spinach

Pictures of the new experiment taken at every half-hour interval. Shown below.


Time: 30min

 

Time: 60min

 Time: 90min  

Time: 120min

Time: 150min

Time: 180min