Apple+Moisture

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Problem Scenario:
My goal is to find out if the skin of the apple protects the moisture. If the apples are stored, which apple will be able to last the longest. From the time an apples gets picked off a tree to getting eaten, that could be a long time. The apples with the most protecting skin will be able to last longer than apples that don't have skin that protects it as well as the other apples. If you are looking for apples that will last then I would recommend either Macintosh, Red Delicious, or Golden Delicious.

Broad Question:
Does the apple skin effect the amount of water lost?

Hypothesis:
I hypothesis is that the Red Delicious apple skin will hold in its moisture the best.

Independent Variable:
Type of apple

Dependent Variable:
Heat of dehydrator

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
The heat of the deydrator will be the same for each apple. The time the apples are in the dehydrator will be the same.

General Plan
My general plan is to dehydrate five different types of apples and see which apple skin holds the most moister. The apples will be in for the same amount of time and the temperature will be the same. I will measure the weight of the apples before and after the get dehydrated and see which one kept the most percentage of its weight.

Potential Problems And Solutions
A potential problem might be that the apples will lose all of their moisture. That some parts of the dehydrator will be hotter than other parts and will effect the apples dehydration.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns
A safety concern may be that the dehydrator will be HOT and you can burn your self.

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 ||
 * Red Delicious || 5 || Hannaford || $5.00 ||
 * Macintosh || 5 || Hannaford || $5.00 ||
 * Granny Smith || 5 || Hannaford || $5.00 ||
 * Golden Delicious || 5 || Hannaford || $5.00 ||
 * Cortland || 5 || Hannaford || $5.00 ||
 * Drying oven || 1 || Mr.biche || $0.00 ||

Detailed Procedure
1)Collect 5 different kinds of apples (3 of each) and make a tinfoil dish for each apple. 2)Label each dish with the kind of apple and the number of the apple. 3)Weigh each apple with its dish and write the number down in a notebook. 4)Put the first batch of apples in the drying oven, one of each kind of apples. 5)After 24 hours exact take the first batch out and and put the second batch in. 6)Weigh the first batch of apples with their dish and write the number down in a notebook. 7)Repeat this process one more time for an average

Photo List
1)Apples before the drying oven. 2) Apples in the drying oven. 3) Apples on weighing scale 4)apples after drying oven

Time Line
Feb.1st- Procedure, timeline and photo list complete. Feb. 4th- Begin experiments Mar. 1st- Experiments done Mar. 7th- Analysis Mar. 15th- Discussion/background, Wiki complete Mar. 22nd- Poster complete Mar. 29th- KMS science fair

Data Table

 * Apple || Mass before (grams) || Mass after (grams) |||| Mass lost (grams) || Red Delicious || Granny Smith || Macintosh || Golden Delicious || Cortland ||
 * Red Delicious #1 || 203 || 192 || 11 ||  || 12 || 19 || 11 || 12 || 24 ||
 * Red Delicious #2 || 199 || 186 || 13 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Granny Smith #1 || 192 || 171 || 21 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Granny Smith #2 || 186 || 169 || 17 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Macintosh #1 || 149 || 137 || 12 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Macintosh #2 || 152 || 142 || 10 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Golden Delicious #1 || 184 || 171 || 13 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Golden Delicious #2 || 196 || 185 || 11 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #1 || 172 || 151 || 21 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #2 || 174 || 147 || 27 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Golden Delicious #2 || 196 || 185 || 11 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #1 || 172 || 151 || 21 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #2 || 174 || 147 || 27 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #2 || 174 || 147 || 27 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

All Raw Data
**Graphs**
 * Apple || Mass before (grams) || Mass after (grams) |||| Mass lost (grams) || Red Delicious || Granny Smith || Macintosh || Golden Delicious || Cortland ||
 * Red Delicious #1 || 203 || 192 || 11 ||  || 12 || 19 || 11 || 12 || 24 ||
 * Red Delicious #2 || 199 || 186 || 13 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Granny Smith #1 || 192 || 171 || 21 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Granny Smith #2 || 186 || 169 || 17 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Macintosh #1 || 149 || 137 || 12 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Macintosh #2 || 152 || 142 || 10 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Golden Delicious #1 || 184 || 171 || 13 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Golden Delicious #2 || 196 || 185 || 11 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #1 || 172 || 151 || 21 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #2 || 174 || 147 || 27 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Golden Delicious #2 || 196 || 185 || 11 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #1 || 172 || 151 || 21 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #2 || 174 || 147 || 27 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Cortland #2 || 174 || 147 || 27 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

Results
My results were close to my hypothesis.I predicted that the Cortland apple would lose the most water and the Red Delicious would lose the least. The Cortland did lose the most but the Red Delicious did not lose the least, Macintosh lost the least. The Granny Smith apples lost the second most water when I thought they would lose the second least. The Red Delicious and the Golden Delicious apples lost the same amount of water.

Conclusion
I found that my hypothesis was proven incorrect. The Red Delicious did not lose the least amount of water like I hypothesized instead the Macintosh lost the least amount of water. I hypothesized that the Cortland would lose the most amount of water and I was correct. I think I partially answered my question because there are more types of apples than the five I used.

Discussion
I could make my project better by using more types of apples than just five. I only partially answered my question because I only used five types of apples. I also could of tested each kind of apples more than two times to get a better average.

Benefit to Community and/or Science
This project does not really have any thing to do with the community, it is more of a interesting thing to know.

Background Research
I am doing my project on five different apples Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Cortland, and Macintosh. I tested each apple twice to find an average. At first I had three of each apple but one batch had to be tossed because due to a snow day they were in the drying oven longer than every other batch. The weight of the apples before entering the drying oven does not seem to affect the amount of water loss.

Abstract
I chose this project because I was interested in finding out which apple skin holds in its water the best. My question was "Which apples skin hold in the most moisture?" My hypothesis was that the Red Delicious apple would lose the least amount of water and the Cortland would lose the most amount of water. I partially answered my question because I only used five types of apples. I also could of tested each kind of apples more than two times to get a better average.