Acid in your Stomach

\

PH Lab Concepts:

During this lab we learned that Antacids are medicines that work by increasing the pH balance in your stomach. A lot of antacids can quickly take care of symptoms like heartburn and indigestion. Antacids are able to make you feel better by increasing the pH balance in your stomach. 

The pH system is a scale for measuring the acidity or alkalinity in your stomach. The scale goes from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral, below 7 is acid, and above 7 is an alkaline. In order for an antacid to actually act fast, it has to get up to 3 or 4 just so it can handle everything happening in your stomach. 

We tested all of these products and the Tums® can out to be a 5, which was really good. In the vinager it bubbled and fizzed, then flatened out. It showed us how powerful it components really were. The Rolaids® stayed at a 3 on the pH level. It foamed up, and remained like that. It wasn't as potent as the Tum obviously. We also tested two different types of Antacid Tablets. Both remarkably had a pH level of 5, but only one fizzled like the Tums®, while the other had no reaction and just mix with the water, it just kind of floated around. Either way, all of these products were made to balance out the pH in your stomach. Some products may be thought to work faster and better because of the brand, but in the end they are all created for the user and each had almost an equal amount in pH levels.

Penny for Thought?



For a project in Biology we did two experiments. One was to see how long you could get water to travel down a piece of string from one beaker to the other, and the other was to see how many drops of water you could get onto a penny until the water I guess you can say "overflowed". I watched as a couple of my classmates did the first experiment. I guess they were going for a world record or something because the piece of string was quite a distance between the beakers. Funny as that sounds, and as entertained as I was, I actually found the experiment interesting. I knew that water could travel down the string, but I didn't know that it could travel on a very long piece. It showed me how complex water can be, and what different shapes it can form into to adjust down the string.

The second experiment caught my attention more though. Brianna and I were lab partners and tried to beat each other out by trying to get the most drops on the penny. I don't know if I was having an off day or what, but lets just say Brianna beat me by a lot (30 to be exact). Mr. Lugwig commented that they must have been some pretty small drops because there was no way that we could get 80, but it was okay. What really surprised my during the experiment was that the penny actually held more water droplets on it than alcohol. I figured since the alcohol was thicker the cohesion would help it on the penny, but that wasn't the case. Water has an unique way of formatting itself onto the penny because of it's density and the adhesion it had, something that the alcohol couldn't do. I guess this is due to the surface tension though. I found this experiment to be really enlightening. Now when I think of water it'll give me a whole new outlook on on I perceive it :)

The deadly L word

Recently in my Biology class we had to look up diseases and studies being done based on them. Then, going by the procedures, had to answer questions about the study. I looked up Leukemia because not too long ago somebody, and I won't mention who, that I know showed symptoms of this disease. The person that I knew bruised very easily with long lasting effects, had random nose bleeds, did not have that much of an appetite, and felt weak at no certain point of the day, but at many. Now, obvious to say I was concerned, but since no results had come back in for awhile I had completely forgot about it. But, as Mr. Ludwig explained the directions to us I quickly thought of one word. Leukemia. The study didn't really say a lot about the disease but I got to choose which different study I wanted to learn about and understand how their process works. I learned the protocol of the study, who is eligible and the steps they have to take after they do the procedure. I thought it was interesting to see how their study went. I never really actually looked up one before. I was happy to see there was so many different results for studies when I typed in Leukemia. It gave me a good understanding of how hard people really are working to help people even if the studies last months upon months. I know that they scientists can't just figure something out right away and solve it, but even knowing that it all gave me, well, some kind of hope.