Science Experiment gone wrong?! (1 Viewer)

[Maancis]

At my school we have been assigned a practical assignment, and basically what I'm doing is placing a iron nail in 4 different conditions (air, water, water with a layer of oil, and salt water). However, its day three, and everything was nice and dainty until i realised the water/oil combo nail had rusted!!!! Not a huge amount, but it was noticeable...

From the brief knowledge I've found on the internet, apparently the nail should not rust. Ive always thought that corrosion required oxygen and water so i don't know how this is possible. I used vegetable oil, don't know if it should affect it.

Can someone please tell me whether corrosion doesn't require oxygen (or does in a weird way) or that I've messed up my experiment because i don't know how to explain this in my conclusion.

Thankyou......

 

[Rouz]

Deep breath, calm down!
Since you expressed this was an assignment, I'm not going to give you the answer but:

This is the point of conducting an experiment. You're either right (in that you have similar results to your peers) or you're wrong.
If you're right, then hallelujah. If you're wrong, you look back at what you did and then DISCUSS why you got the wrong result.

If you find that you have gotten incorrect results, you'll say something like "Having compared my results with those of others, I realised that mine were different. This is probably because I mistakenly did this instead of that," or "A drop of this may have gotten into that" followed by a scientific explanation. You then take what should have happened as truth (because when 20 people get the same results, the results are reliable) and continue from there.

 

[Maancis]

Deep breath, calm down!
Since you expressed this was an assignment, I'm not going to give you the answer but:

This is the point of conducting an experiment. You're either right (in that you have similar results to your peers) or you're wrong.
If you're right, then hallelujah. If you're wrong, you look back at what you did and then DISCUSS why you got the wrong result.

If you find that you have gotten incorrect results, you'll say something like "Having compared my results with those of others, I realised that mine were different. This is probably because I mistakenly did this instead of that," or "A drop of this may have gotten into that" followed by a scientific explanation. You then take what should have happened as truth (because when 20 people get the same results, the results are reliable) and continue from there.

Thanks, that helps me out, but i'd love to know what happened

 

[Rouz]

Thanks, that helps me out, but i'd love to know what happened

You can make guesses as to what happened as long as you're backing them up with science. The point is you know what should have happened because of 20 other repeats, just not your repeats.

In case you're getting assessed on your results as well as the conduct of the experiment (which is unlikely), speak to your teacher as well; but that is very unlikely.

Also, you can find the actual answer to your question in any textbook. It's straightforward.

 

[Maancis]

You can make guesses as to what happened as long as you're backing them up with science. The point is you know what should have happened because of 20 other repeats, just not your repeats.

In case you're getting assessed on your results as well as the conduct of the experiment (which is unlikely), speak to your teacher as well; but that is very unlikely.

Also, you can find the actual answer to your question in any textbook. It's straightforward.

Nevermind, i figured ou why, but i don't know whether to start again or continue because i want to achieve maximum marks.

 

[leehuan]

Nevermind, i figured ou why, but i don't know whether to start again or continue because i want to achieve maximum marks.

2 questions to consider

1. Do the results actually affect the mark so significantly
2. Do you have enough time altogether.

 

[dan964]

2 questions to consider

1. Do the results actually affect the mark so significantly
2. Do you have enough time altogether.

Consider these things. Just as long as you can explain a couple of things:
1. Figure out the cause of the error in this case the rusting.
2. Know what the expected result.
3. You can raise in a discussion re: reliability, accuracy (***) and that concerning the experiment. It actually will be quite good because not ever experiment will produce the results required, so as long as you can figure out what went wrong, you can discuss it. But as long as you know what should happen.

 

[StudiousStudent]

Nevermind, i figured ou why, but i don't know whether to start again or continue because i want to achieve maximum marks.

Never start again. There are always variables in science.
My bio teacher always reinforces it doesn't matter whether you're right or wrong, or your whether your results are contrary to the norm.
You can still get maximum marks.

My bio assignment required me to do an experiment, and my results were the polar opposite to what everyone else found. My bio teacher found it intriguing and sat down with me and come up with a bunch of reasons as to why my results were different despite following the method to a T.

I achieved 99% for that. The 1 mark I missed out on was because I handed it in at the end of class when it was due at the start of class (I had an appointment in the morning so was late).

 

[Queenroot]

You can discuss that as an error

 

[Maancis]

Never start again. There are always variables in science.
My bio teacher always reinforces it doesn't matter whether you're right or wrong, or your whether your results are contrary to the norm.
You can still get maximum marks.

My bio assignment required me to do an experiment, and my results were the polar opposite to what everyone else found. My bio teacher found it intriguing and sat down with me and come up with a bunch of reasons as to why my results were different despite following the method to a T.

I achieved 99% for that. The 1 mark I missed out on was because I handed it in at the end of class when it was due at the start of class (I had an appointment in the morning so was late).

Thankyou so much, it honestly makes me feel so much better to hear that. I was afraid that by getting the wrong result it showed the markers that i don't study and research well enough but i did retry it (curiosity) with boiled water but i still got rust!! I guess ill have to discuss it...

 

[Nailgun]

Thankyou so much, it honestly makes me feel so much better to hear that. I was afraid that by getting the wrong result it showed the markers that i don't study and research well enough but i did retry it (curiosity) with boiled water but i still got rust!! I guess ill have to discuss it...

if you were trying to purify the water, boiling isn't going to help. you need to distill it/get distilled water

 

[someth1ng]

if you were trying to purify the water, boiling isn't going to help. you need to distill it/get distilled water

It would help, in theory, because you force oxygen out of the water but you also change a bunch of things so it's hard to say.