Monday, June 9, 2014

Fifth Grade Science Project

For Cedar's 5th Grade Science Project, he tried to determine which beverages affect teeth the most.  His hypothesis was that soda would decay the teeth the most because all his life adults have told him "Soda rots your teeth".  Shown here is the Coca-Cola test result which actually came in ranked 3rd on decay (a 3% loss).  But clearly leaves quite a stain!
 
It was determined by weight that store bought lemonade caused a 10% loss of the teeth!
Orange Gatorade ranked 2nd in the amount of decay (6%) and leaves this lovely orange color!Coke, Gatorade and Lemonade all have high acid content (pH of 2 - 2.4) and high sugar content (6%-11%). 

Plain Assam black tea, no sugar added, has a pH of 4.6 but did not decay the teeth.  However it will stain.

For his efforts, Cedar received the 'Future Scientist' award complete with a bag full of goodies and candy.

2 comments:

Angela McRae said...

My goodness, that is fascinating! And as an avid science fair competitor myself at one time, I raise my teacup to Cedar!

Marilyn Miller said...

Now that is quite an award for his study! Smiling! Good to see the results for tea. Now did he have to pull his teeth out to do the study?