Discussion
In my hypothesis, I stated that if we use paper towels and cotton balls to absorb the oil and use dish soap and vinegar mixed with baking soda to contain the oil, then the cotton balls will absorb the oil the best with a 50% absorption and a total absorption of 70% and the dish soap will contain the oil the best with a 70% of containment and a total containment of 80%. My hypothesis was proven mostly wrong. With disappointment, I found out that the result of my experiment was not as efficient and sufficient as I expected it to be. The result was that only 55% of oil was contained and about 65% of oil was absorbed. However, my expectation of the facts that the cotton balls would absorb the most oil and the dish soap with contain the most oil were proven correct. Even though the percentage were not as high as I hypothesized. I suspected the dish soap to contain the most oil because dish soap is made for cleaning off oily materials. While for the cotton balls, I expected it to absorb the most oil because we use cotton balls to absorb liquid such as make ups and blood and it's made up of fibers with that weaved together which helps in trapping the oil in the cotton.
The purpose of this experiment was to find out the most effective way to clean up an simulated oil spill by pouring 50 mL of crude oil into a washbasin filled with 2/3 of tap water. For the lab, we used four materials to clean up the oil: 25mL of vinegar and baking soda mixture, 35 mL of Sunlight dish soap, 10 cotton balls and 5 paper towels. Therefore, those are the independent variables that were used to contain and absorb the oil. Those independent variables effected the dependent variables, in this particular lab, are the percentages of oil being absorbed and contained by the independent variables and the total amount of oil spill that are absorbed and contained. Our control variables were the temperature and density of the crude oil and water, the amount of water and oil spill in the washbasin before the experiment, the room temperature etc. We tried to keep the control the same throughout our experiment.
As I have already stated, my hypothesis was proven mostly inaccurate because the four materials we used for the experiment were not as effective as I have been expecting. As shown in table two, although the mixture of vinegar and baking soda works well at home for cleaning tables (self experience), it isn't very effective when trying to clean off liquids such as oil. Only 5% of oil was contained and 0% of oil was absorbed by using vinegar and baking soda. As for dish soap, it worked quite well comparing with the vinegar and baking soda method. 40% of oil was contained by the dish soap, even though 0% of oil was absorbed. It's quite the opposite for cotton balls, those were not very effective in containing oil, only about 10% of oil was contained. But for absorbing, cotton balls did their jobs well, about 40% of oil was absorbed and leaving 60% of oil for the paper towel to absorb. To our disappointment, paper towels only absorbed 25% of the oil and still left about 35% of oil floating in the washbasin. Over all, there were 55% of oil contained and 65% of oil absorbed.
Overall, I believe the experiment was successful as it met it's original purpose of determine the best cleaning method for oil spills. However there was an error and many improvements can be made to make this experiment even better. One source of error was that we did not accurately measure the percentage, it was more like an educated guess so the results were not 100% accurate. To improve this experiment, I believe we should have our experiment in 4 different washbasin so it would be easier to tell the difference. Also, I believe we should use salt water from the ocean and car fuel to make the simulation more similar. All and all I believe the experiment was successful and I have learned more information about oil spills.