Glow-in-the-dark+Jell-O

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Title
What color of Jell-o glows brightest under a black light?

Broad Question
What Jell-o glows best under a black light?

Specific Question
What color of Jell-o glows brightest under a black light?

Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that blue Jell-o will glow the brightest, closely followed by green and it is also hypothesized that orange will glow the dullest.

Independent Variable:
The color of Jell-o

Dependent Variable:
Light Intensity

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
The amount of Jell-o made, the amount of tonic water in each Jell-o mixture, the amount of light that came in contact with Jell-o while the experiment was being run, the amount of time each trial was run, the temperature the Jell-o was kept in, the amount of trials run for each Jell-o color,

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
Quinine- The ingredient in tonic water that make the Jell-o glow in the dark.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns
Safety concerns: Burning yourself on heating device, breaking black light and getting cut by it

Experimental Design
(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)

Resources and Budget Table

 * Item || Number needed || Where I will get this || Cost ||
 * Grape Jell-o mix 3 oz. || 1 || Hannaford || $0.99 ||
 * Lemon Jell-o mix 3 oz. || 1 || Hannaford || $0.99 ||
 * Orange Jell-o mix 3 oz. || 1 || Hannaford || $0.99 ||
 * Berry blue Jell-o mix 3 oz. || 1 || Hannaford || $0.99 ||
 * Cherry Jell-o mix 3 oz. || 1 || Hannaford || $0.99 ||
 * Lime Jell-o mix 3 oz. || 1 || Hannaford || $0.99 ||
 * Knox's Unflavored Gelatin 1 oz. || 1 || Hannaford || $1.99 ||
 * Adirondack Tonic water 2 Liter || 2 || Hannaford || $0.89 ea. ||

Detailed Procedure
Procedure:


 * 1) Buy 1 box each of clear, yellow (lemon), orange (orange), red (cherry), blue (berry blue), green (lime) and purple (grape) Jell-o from any store. Also buy 4 liters of tonic water.
 * 2) Bring the jello packages to Mr. Yahna’s room on February 4th.
 * 3) Place 7 empty one quart plastic yogurt containers in the refrigerator in the cafeteria with a note saying “Middle School Science Fair Project. Please Don’t Touch.”
 * 4) Then proceed to make the Jell-o from this recipe on February 25, during A Block science and possibly into academic, substituting regular water for the tonic water, while pictures a being taken.:

 5. On March 6, proceed to conduct your experiment, and have pictures being taken.: 1. Get all the Jell-o from the refrigerator, and bring it up to Mr. Yahna’s room.  2. Set up the experiment, putting one container of Jell-o in a sink full of warm water and when the bottom is warm enough, flip it over and tap the bottom, letting the Jell-o mold plop out. 3. Put the Jell-o mold on a platform made of aluminum foil (the size of the yogurt container lid), inside a W.B. Mason cardboard box with a hole cut out of the top, with roughly a diameter of 4 inches (around the guy’s face) and put the black light hooked up to Mr. Yahna’s computer in the hole, and measure the lux (light intensity) of the Jell-o.  4. Repeat steps 2-3 for all the Jell-o, one color at a time.  5. Repeat step 4 for four more trials, five total trials of each color. 6. If not allowed enough time to conduct all 35 trials, conduct the rest on March 8.  7. Record the data on a separate Google doc.
 * 1) Basically you just follow the directions on the package, except use tonic water instead of water.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For a small package, the usual directions would be to heat 1 cup of tonic water to boiling.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mix the boiling tonic water and Jell-o until the powder is completely dissolved in a one quart yogurt container..
 * 4) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stir in another cup of cold tonic water.
 * 5) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Refrigerate the Jell-o (downstairs in the cafeteria, with Shannon’s permission) until it has set.

Results
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The average light intensity for the clear, green and yellow Jell-o was all 19 lux. The average light intensity for both the red and orange Jell-o was 19.2 lux. The average light intensity for purple Jell-o was 19.4 lux and the average light intensity for blue Jell-o was 19.8 lux. The blue Jell-o glowed the best.

Conclusion
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The experiment was designed to test which color of Jell-o glows best under a black light. The blue Jell-o glowed the best. The blue Jell-on had an average light intensity of 19.8 lux, and the purple Jell-o had 19.4 lux. Orange and red Jell-o had 19.2 lux. Green, yellow and clear Jell-o had 19 lux.

Discussion
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The experiment question was “What color of Jell-o glows best under a black light?” The experiment results did answer the experiment question, and the answer to the experiment question was blue. It was in fact hypothesized that blue would glow the best. So, the hypothesis was supported by the results and the answer to the experiment question. The results provide the answer to the experiment question, as they show that the blue Jell-o has 19.8 lux of light intensity, whereas the green, yellow and clear Jell-o only have 19 lux of light intensity. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A pattern seen within the data and observations is that colors that are close on the color wheel sometimes have the same light intensity (clear, green and yellow have 19 lux, red and orange have 19.2 lux, purple has 19.4 lux and blue has 19.8 lux). The relationship between the color of Jell-o and changes in the light intensity is very strong. The cause and effect shown are of medium-strength. These results happened because of the fluorescence of the quinine in the tonic water, which produces all colors of Jell-o to glow bright blue, therefore the blue Jell-o has an advantage, having a glow of its own color that no other Jell-o has. This information was found through research, as there have been many previous similar experiments that had similar results. The results can be explained through what is known about quinine and why any color of Jell-o glows blue when made with tonic water. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A problem that was managed in the design of the experiment was the light input on the Jell-o, so it was decided that the Jell-o would be placed inside of a dark box, and the only “punctures” or possible “outside” light input would be from a hole in the lid of the box, which was where the dark light would be placed throughout the experiment. The experiment design and operation changed a little, as it was thought that the light intensity of the Jell-o could be measured with a better light monitor, but that ended up failing. If the operation of the experiment could have been run differently, better, smarter, sooner, etc., it would have been done so that the actual data testing had begun sooner, or with a better light monitor, if at all possible. The specialized technology needed to conduct this experiment was the light monitor. Something that should be known about the light monitor is that if the person running the testing was unfamiliar with that particular system, it was very confusing and hard to manage, and the person running the testing definitely had to keep track of the Jell-o, the trials and the machinery itself. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The knowledge gained through this experiment could be of benefit to someone who was running a similar experiment in the future, because it is certainly beneficial to someone who needs to write a hypothesis, to have that type of information and data. If someone was to test all flavors of Jell-o, whereas in this experiment only seven were tested, that could build upon future knowledge that this experiment, along with many others, have created and built upon, and also, if someone were to test more than five trials of each color, that would also improve the results and therefore, improve the overall knowledge of this topic and any experiments to results from it.

Background Research
<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Jell-O gelatin comes in powder or solid form, and is typically used to create desserts, such as fruit molds, no-bake pies, flavored punch and whipped parfaits. The powder form can also be used to create glow-in-the-dark science projects that use additional elements, such as quinine in tonic water or phosphors in petroleum jelly, which are best revealed when placed under a black light.2. The experiments already mentioned will result in a bright blue glow that has a measurable optical effect. Quinine and phosphors emit photons that create a fluorescent quantum yield, which is the measurement of how efficiently absorbed light creates a glow under an ultraviolet light. Experimenting with the amount of tonic water or petroleum jelly will change the intensity of the emissions, and can be mathematically measured by determining the number of photons emitted to the number of photons absorbed. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 3. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No matter what flavor/color of Jell-O you use, it will glow bright blue under the black light. This is the fluorescence of the [|quinine] in the tonic water. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4.All of the colors of JELL-O will definitely not glow the same. Two colors (green and orange) were tested and found brilliant results with the green JELL-O and dull results with the orange JELL-O. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Make the Jell-O <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">
 * 1) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Basically you just follow the directions on the package, except use tonic water instead of water.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For a small package, the usual directions would be to heat 1 cup of tonic water to boiling.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mix the boiling tonic water and Jell-O until the powder is completely dissolved.
 * 4) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stir in another cup of tonic water.
 * 5) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pour the liquid into a pan or bowl.
 * 6) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Refrigerate the Jell-O until is has set.
 * 7) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You can use cookie cutters to make shapes out of the gelatin, if desired.
 * 8) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shine a black light on the Jell-O to make it glow.

Abstract
**  The purpose of this experiment was to find out which color of Jell-o glows brightest under a black light. It was hypothesized that the blue Jell-o would glow the brightest. The experiment was done by testing all seven colors of Jell-o five times each for thirty seconds each trial, under a black light. The light intensity of the Jell-o was monitored by a light sensor that was hooked up to a computer program. The results of this experiment were that blue did glow the brightest. The average light intensity for blue was 19.8 lux and the average light intensity for the colors with the lowest light intensity, yellow, clear and green, was 19 lux. **