Red Cabbage Indicator Lab
Purpose: The red cabbage indicator lab was to understand how different chemicals, acids and bases, react and change color because of it. The lab was also to understand neutralization reactions and why they occur.
Hypothesis: My hypothesis is if we put an acid or a base in to a neutral then it will change colors.
Procedure: The procedure of this experiment was fairly simple in theory. We would put 5ml of a substance in a test tube. We them added 5 drops of red cabbage indicator and depending what color it turned it was a base or an acid. We did this with three acids and three bases. After we took the strongest acid and the strongest base and added them together to create a neutralization reaction.
Reflection: What did you get out of it? What did you learn from it? How do you feel about it? What were the possible sources of error (both human and mechanical)
What I got from this is how using simple things you can test if it’s acidic or basic. What I learned from this is that labeling is key so you know what your substances are. I feel that this was really more for messing around with experiments than real results. I thought I practiced good lab technique towards safety and experimenting with substances, not spilling them. I could have done better by labeling the contents and giving myself time for delays and other problems. Some things did go wrong like, I didn’t expect for “the works” and ammonia to fume so bad that I had to take it to the fume hood. Also I didn’t get to do a neutralization reaction because I ran out of time.
Conclusion: My group’s hypothesis was correct in assuming that it would change colors with different substances or mixtures. If we put an acid or a base in to a neutral then it will change colors. My group’s hypothesis was correct in assuming that it would change colors with different substances or mixtures. The red cabbage indicator did change colors. Greens for bases and reds and pinks for acids. An alternative hypothesis for this could be “If the red cabbage indicator is purple then adding a base or an acid will turn it different colors other than purple if the mixture is not artificially dyed.” Further experiments I could do are varying the potency of the bases and acids to see if I could also get a neutralization reaction without the fumes. I could also see how acidic “the works” is by seeing how long it takes for it to strip paint.