Purpose:
The purpose of this lab is to find out and explore how sweet certain carbohydrates are and why they might be so sweet or not so sweet.
Materials:
- Petri dishes (60x15 mm, sterile),
- Plastic spoons,
- Paper cups,
- Tap water,
- Sugars (sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, cellulose, starch)
Procedure:
- We laid out samples of each carbohydrate
- We tasted each sample and wrote down comments or observations and gave each a numerical value based on sweetness
- Taking our data we then organized a chart explaining the type, numerical value, color, texture, and function of each sample.
Results:
data analysis:
Fructose and sucrose were the sweetest carbohydrates. We figured out that the sweetness depends on the number of sugar rings each carbohydrate has. The more rings it has, the less sweet it is.
We also observed that the more rings the carbohydrate had, the finer grain it was. For example, fructose, a monosaccharide, had very large grains while starch, a polysaccharide, was a very fine powder.
When rating each sample with a numerical value, 0-5, not sweet to sweetest, not everyone rated each sample the same. This is most likely due to everyone having different preferences and or being used to either certain levels of sweetness or lack of sweetness.
After further study I found that monosacharrides, alike structurally, are also very similar in other characteristics. In our data galactose and fructose, both monosaccharides, are both very sweet and also have fairly large grains.
We also observed that the more rings the carbohydrate had, the finer grain it was. For example, fructose, a monosaccharide, had very large grains while starch, a polysaccharide, was a very fine powder.
When rating each sample with a numerical value, 0-5, not sweet to sweetest, not everyone rated each sample the same. This is most likely due to everyone having different preferences and or being used to either certain levels of sweetness or lack of sweetness.
After further study I found that monosacharrides, alike structurally, are also very similar in other characteristics. In our data galactose and fructose, both monosaccharides, are both very sweet and also have fairly large grains.
reflection:
Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this lab. I thought it was cool how we got to taste the samples for ourselves. This allowed us to figured out and make connections and observations for ourselves. Which I find easier to understand and remember, rather than someone telling me.
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Together me and my partner collaborated very efficiently. We both tried all of the samples and discussed afterward on the taste, texture, and numerical value of sweetness. We had no problems when working together.
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After the lab we had very little human error, although it is impossible to have none. What might have affected our results, was not thoroughly washing your mouth between tasting samples. This would affect the taste and data.
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