Dissolving+Medication

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Title
Which pain killer would you take to relieve your pain the fastest?

Problem Scenario
The water wouldn't stay the same temperature, therefore slowing down the dissolving process.

Broad Question
What painkillers react faster?

Specific Question
Does Aleve, Tylenol, Motrin, Advil Liquid Gels or Ibuprofen dissolve faster in body temperature water with lemon juice acting as stomache acid?

Hypothesis
I hypothesize that Ibuprofen will dissolve the fastest when put in body temperature water with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and Advil Liquid Gels will take the longest time to dissolve.

Independent Variable:
Types of Medications

Dependent Variable:
Time of dissolution

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
Body Temperature water with two tablespoons of lemon juice to act as stomach acid. Same sized glass containers with the same amount of water and lemon juice.

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
Nsaids- nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that are used to treat a variety of conditions that cause pain. Dissolution- the process of dissolving.

General Plan
I am going to take different NSAID's and dissolve them in room temperature water with two tablespoons of lemon juice. I will be timing the amount of time it takes to dissolve each of the NSAID's and then recording the data.

Potential Problems And Solutions
The water mixed with two table spoons of lemon juice could potential decrease in temperature. To make sure this problem doesn't happen I will add heat to the liquid to keep it at a constant rate of 98 degrees celcius.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns
There are a few safety concerns. The first one is the medication itself. Someone could take the medication for themselves, but with the nurses help, the medication will be stored securely in her office at all times and she will be the only one with access to where the medication is located. Also I will be doing this experiment under the nurses supervision making sure that all medications are handled and disposed of properly. After the experiment is done one of my parents will pick up the medication from the nurses office and take it home. I will not be carrying the medication with me at anytime during this experiment.

What is your experimental unit?
NSAID's.

Number Of Trials:
Twenty-five.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:
I would have five subjects in each trial.

Number of Observations:
I will have twenty-five different measurements.

When data will be collected
My data will be collected over the course of one to three days.

Where will data be collected
My data will be collected in the Kennett Middle School's Nurses office.

Resources and Budget Table

 * Item || Number needed || Where I will get this || Cost ||
 * Advil || 5 || Rite-Aid ||  ||
 * Aleve || 5 || Rite-Aid ||  ||
 * Tylenol || 5 || Rite-Aid ||  ||
 * Mortin || 5 || Rite-Aid ||  ||
 * Lemon juice || 1 bottle || Hannaford's ||  ||
 * Glass Containers || 25 ||  ||   ||

Detailed Procedure
1) I will take five of each medication and put them in room temperature water with two tablespoons of lemon juice. 2) I am going to take a stop watch and time how long it takes for each of the medications to dissolve. 3) After the medications have dissolved, I am going to take all five of the times recorded for each individual medication, add the times together and average them. Which would then give me the average time it takes for the medication to dissolve in the water/ lemon juice mixture. 4) I will graph all of the data and figure out which medication would work to relieve your pain the fastest.

Photo List
1) The medication bottles. 2) The lemon juice. 3) Bottles of room temperature water. 4) The medication in the lemon juice and water. 5) The dissolved medication in the lemon juice and water.

Time Line
Procedure/Timeline/Photo list complete - 2/1 Begin Experiments - 2/4 Experiments Done - 3/1 Analysis - 3/7 Discussion/Background Research - 3/15 Wiki Complete - 3/15 Poster Complete - 3/22 KMS Science Fair - 3/29

Data Table

 * Advil Liquid Gels || Aleve || Motrin || Ibuprofen || Tylenol ||
 * 41:48.9 || 2:59.2 || 1:21.5 || 1:43.7 || 2:31.6 ||
 * 40:01.3 || 2:55.7 || 1:29.1 || 1:42.9 || 2:26.4 ||
 * 41:38.9 || 2:57.7 || 1:08.4 || 1:41.6 || 2:33.9 ||
 * 41:48.7 || 2:52.9 || 1:06.6 || 1:41.6 || 2:27.5 ||
 * 41:48.9 || 2:59.6 || 1:05.5 || 1:42.1 || 2:21.7 ||

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All Raw Data

 * Trials || Advil Liquid Gels || Motrin || Ibuprofen || Aleve || Tyenol ||
 * 1 || 2508.9 || 81.5 || 103.7 || 179.2 || 151.6 ||
 * 2 || 2401.3 || 89.1 || 102.9 || 175.7 || 146.6 ||
 * 3 || 2498.9 || 68.4 || 101.6 || 177.7 || 153.9 ||
 * 4 || 2508.7 || 66.6 || 101.6 || 172.9 || 147.5 ||
 * 5 || 2508.9 || 65.5 || 102.1 || 179.6 || 141.7 ||

Photos
Advil Liquid Gels dissolving in room temperature water with two table spoons of lemon juice. All materials used for each trial.

Results
My over all results for my experiment has shown me that Motrin will dissolve at a faster rate than Tylenol, Advil Liquid Gels, Ibuprofen and Aleve. In my experiment I used four different NSAID's. (Advil Luquid Gels, Motrin, Ibuprofen, Aleve, Tylenol) My tylenol NSAID dissolved the third fastest. When the tablet was first dropped into the room temperature water it started swelling. It took about 141 seconds for the first tablet to burst open. When they all were bursted open, they looked like clouds and slowly started to fade away. The water color after all the pills had dissolved, was a musty white color and had bubbles. My Motrin NSAID took anywhere from 65 seconds to 82 seconds to dissolve. When the NSAID had fully dissolved the water was orange from the coating the NSAID had on the outside. The NSAID was more crystal looking than powder looking. I feel that this NSAID would work the best because the Motrin had the fastest dissolution time out of the other four NSAIDs that I dissolved. My Aleve NSAID took the fourth fastest time to dissolve. With the fastest dissolving time 172.9 seconds and the slowest 179.6 seconds for the Aleve NSAID. The color of the tablet was a light blue and that's what color the water turned the more and more the NSAID dissolved. This NSAID would work if you had medium amounts of pain but not if you needed quick relief. My Ibuprofen NSAID took a total of 101.6 to 103.7 seconds to dissolve. Making Ibuprofen the second fastest desolating NSAID that I have tested. The water turned a whitish color but had more of a powdery look to the water than the others. This NSAID would work very well if you were in need of quick pain relief but the urgency wasn't as high as me recommending Motrin. My Advil Liquid Gel NSAID took the LONGEST time to dissolve. The shortest dissolving time took over 40 minutes! Because the NSAID was a liquid gel, the water became a watery blue. The water looked as if there were wrinkles in it. If you only have slight pain but you want relief that lasts for a while, I would recommend taking Advil Liquid Gels. Although the doses are bigger than most powdered compacted NSAIDs.

Conclusion
The conclusion that I have come to after collecting all of my data, is that Motrin IB will dissolve faster therefore causing it to react more quickly than the other four medications I have tested. My hypothesis originally was that Ibuprofen will dissolve the fastest when put in Room temperature water with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and Advil Liquid Gels will take the longest time to dissolve. I reject my hypothesis because Motrin IB dissolved faster than the other four medications tested and Ibuprofen took the third longest time to dissolve. However Advil Liquid Gels still took the longest time to dissolve and that part of my hypothesis is still correct.

Discussion
In my data there wasn't really any patterns. Although for each individual NSAID the dissolution time for each of the pills themselves, were within a few seconds of each other. The relationship between the two variables, both dependent and independent is whether or not the medication will dissolve at a faster rate than another medication with the same amount of lemon juice in each container with room temperature water. With the data I have collected I was more than able to answer my experiment question: Does Aleve, Tylenol, Motrin, Advil Liquid Gels or Ibuprofen dissolve faster in body temperature water with lemon juice acting as stomach acid? The answer to this question is Mortin. I came to this overall answer because the NSAID Mortin, dissolved the fastest in the lemon water. I only had one problem with my overall experiment and that was that I couldn't find a way to keep the lemon water at body temperature, so to fix this I just put the water at room temperature. I could have improved my experiment by adding more NSAIDs to the bunch I had already included, and or tried to find a way to keep the lemon water at body temperature.

Benefit to Community and/or Science
The benefit to Community would be the help of knowing which pain reliever works the best, strongest and fastest without having to read every label in the selection of NSAIDs.

Background Research
NSAID’s are non-sterol anti-inflammatory drugs. These medications are prescribed mostly to people with arthritis. This helps with the pain. NSAID’s are basic over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen, aspirin, Advil, ect. NSAID’s aren’t just pain relievers they also help reduce any inflammation and lower fevers. Also they can prevent blood from clotting. That may be good in some cases but not so good in others. One example, for instance aspirin, can reduce clotting action and may have a protective effect to fend against heart disease. Although, you are more likely to bruise easier. NSAID’s may increase the risk of developing nausea, an ulcer, or an upset stomache. The NSAID’s can also interfere with kidney function.

=References= http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00284

Abstract
The overall experiment that I chose worked very well. I didn't have to change anything in my experiment besides the temperature of the water. I couldn't keep the water at a constant temperature without bringing the liquid to a boil. My hypothesis ended up being wrong, but isn't that what experiments are for? (The correct answer is yes...) I thought that Ibuprofen would dissolve the fastest, but Motrin beat Ibuprofen in the dissolving race. I am happy with my overall experiment because I didn't have much difficulty. I might have been able to improve my experiment by adding more NSAIDs, however that would have brought the cost up quite a bit.