Excelsior Space Mission 2006 : Experiment 2- Ripening Fruits and Vegetables

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Experiment 2- Ripening Fruits and Vegetables

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Experiment 2- Ripening Fruits and Vegetables

topic started 1/10/2006; 8:19:26 AM
last post 1/10/2006; 8:19:26 AM

Mission Control - Experiment 2- Ripening Fruits and Vegetables

1/10/2006; 8:19:26 AM (reads: 5167, responses: 0)

PURPOSE: To see if fruits and vegetables will ripen faster in water or water with Vitamin C tablets.

HYPOTHESIS: The astronauts have to predict if fruit and vegetables will ripen faster in water or in Vitamin C water.

MATERIALS: Distilled water, apples and bananas, carrots and celery, Vitamin C tablets, 2 plastic bowls, knife, 2 large spoons, 3 paper plates, graph paper, and a ruler.

PROCEDURE:
1) Put distilled water into the two bowls, in one bowl put a Vitamin C tablet and don't put anything in the other bowl.
2) Cut a piece of of fruit into six wedges.
3) Label the bowl that has the Vitamin C in it "Vitamin C".
4) Cut two wedges into each bowl. Keep them in the water for 10 minutes.
5) When it has been 10 minutes take out each wedge with a spoon and place the wedge on separate labeled plates. Make sure the inside of the fruit is facing the air.
6) Repeat steps 2 through 5 with each fruit and vegetable being tested. Let all 3 plates sit for an hour and look for any browning.
7) Write down your observations.

RESULTS: The Vitamin C fruit looked better than the non Vitamin C fruit. The non Vitamin C fruit was more shriveled and brown.

OBSERVATIONS: The Vitamin C fruit started turning brown and shriveling five minutes after it was taken out of the water. The non Vitamin C fruit started turning brown and started shriveling 3 minutes after being taken out of the water. After 45 minutes they were both equally shriveled and brown.

CONCLUSION: The Vitamin C water only worked a little bit better than the non Vitamin C water. It barley made a difference. The Vitamin C fruit only started turning brown two minutes after the non Vitamin C fruit. The Vitamin C water is a better preserver only by a tiny difference because fruit has Vitamin C in it and it helped it by adding more of the Vitamin C.

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