06/02/2012 - And Enlightenment is Reached!

After pondering about it for quite some time, I was struck by enlightenment. 

It came to me quite suddenly. The very perfectionist me, never one who liked approximations and estimations, tried my best to measure the amount of water to the very dot. However, I forgot one thing - a crucial thing that had caused me much of my grievances during the course of my study in Physics. 

Measurements. 

How could I forget that I can't measure exactly to the dot? 

Well, obviously I did, because I started measuring decimal points. But in fact, the most tolerable limit would be 50ml, because the markings on the 500ml measuring cup I used were in markings of 100ml. It was one of the basics in measurements, and quite idiotically (and much to my disappointment for it caused me much hair loss) I forgot about it! 

So, instead of measuring to the nearest 50ml, I changed it to the nearest 100ml, because, well, that's more accurate that 50ml. And with that, I successfully completed my new Experimental Procedures for Experiment #1! 

And enlightenment is reached! 

Haha, so in any case, here are the updated experimental procedures for Experiment #1, and tomorrow I'm going to be conducting Experiments #2 and part of Experiment #3. The experimental procedures for both experiments will probably be changed as well, and as of now I'm rewriting the experimental procedures again. 

Yup, so not to keep you waiting, here are the (hopefully finalised) experimental procedures of Experiment #1! 

Sponge Experiment

Aim of Experiment

To find out the amount of water needed to keep a sponge moist.

Apparatus:

·      3 pink sponges

·      3 yellow sponges

·      1 pail

·      1 basin

·      Tap water

·      1 500ml measuring cup

·      1 plastic foil

Steps of Experiment:

1.       Fill the measuring cup with 500ml of tap water.

2.       Pour the tap water into the pail.

3.       Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until there is 2000ml of water (amount of water is chosen as such seen the water level would be enough for the sponge to be completely submerged).

4.       Fully submerge a yellow sponge in water.

5.       Hold the sponge down in the water to ensure that the sponge is thoroughly soaked.

6.       Remove the sponge from the water.

7.       Hold the sponge such that the excess water drips into the pail. Do not squeeze the sponge.

8.       Place the sponge aside, on top of the plastic foil.

9.       Fill the measuring cup with water from the pail.

10.   Pour the tap water away into the basin.

11.   Repeat Steps 9 and 10 until the pail is completely drained, keeping count of the number of times the measuring cup is filled and the amount of water the measuring cup is filled with each time.

12.   If amount does not reach the 100ml markings, round to the nearest 100ml.

13.   Subtract the final amount from the initial amount to get the amount of water absorbed by the sponge.

14.   Repeat Steps 1 to 13 on the other 2 yellow sponges and the 3 pink sponges.

15.   Collate data.

Data:

Sponge	Amount of Water Left to nearest (100ml)	Amount of Water Absorbed in Sponge (to nearest 100ml)
Y2	500ml + 500ml + 300ml + 300ml = 1600ml	2000ml – 1600ml = 400ml  400ml
Y3	500ml + 400ml + 300ml + 446 ml = 1646 ml	2000ml – 1646 ml = 353 ml  400ml
Y4	500ml + 500ml + 400ml + 385 ml = 1785 ml	2000ml – 1785 ml = 214 ml  200ml
P2	500Iml + 500ml + 300ml + 335 ml = 1635 ml	2000ml – 1635 ml = 364 ml  400ml
P3	500ml + 500ml + 300ml +378 ml = 1678 ml	2000ml – 1678 ml = 321 ml  300ml
P4	500ml + 500ml + 300ml + 385 ml = 1685 ml	2000ml – 1685 ml = 314 ml  300ml

Disclaimer: You can't see them, but there are actually fractions and approximation signs in here. Blogspot obviously don't support mathematics. Well, from Y3 on, there are fractions in the results, and the last sums in the third column of the table (e.g. in the Y4 role, the last sum is 200ml) are the approximated values.

Conclusion:

The amount of water needed to keep a sponge moist is around 400ml. 

Haha, I'm so happy that I'm delirious!

By the way, this is random and has no relevance to SIP at all, but one of my (very, very minor) dreams is to become a neurologist. I have great expectations (Lit!) for people's brains, mostly because I believe they are capable of causing spiritual phenomenons. You know how psychics can bend spoons in mid-air? How some fortune-tellers predicted things way before time, like Nostradamus? Well, I believe all these psychic effects can be found in the brain, and if we fiddle with the human brain long enough, we'll be able to create a real psychic.

In fact, I believe that if we fiddle with the human brain, we'll be able to make it so genius-ly smart, it'll surpass the level on the IQ charts. Maybe I'm being kind of dramatic over here, but I'm sure one day we'll solve the mysteries behind the human brain.

...actually, I wanted to fiddle with a brain for SIP. But I suspected no one would be willing to lend me one. Oh well.