What Liquids/Materials Make the Best Conductors?

What Liquids/Materials make the Best Conductors?

Graphs

Procedure

• 1. The first thing I did was pick my project and did an experiment plan on it.

  2. To begin testing I got a digital multimeter.

  3. After I got the digital multimeter I collected all items to test.

  4. When beginning to test I switched the digital multimeter to the omega sign.

  5. After those two steps I started testing the items

  6. When testing the liquids I poured 2 oz of the liquid to make a fair test.

  7. While testing any of the items or liquids, I made sure the two wires were 1 cm. apart from each other to make it fair.

  8. While testing I looked for letters such as “K” or “M”.

  9. After I finished testing everything I put the information into my data log to check which liquids or materials made the best conductors.

Hypothesis

For my project, I predicted that bottled water would make the best conductor. I think bottled water would be the best conductor because it is known that lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water conduct electricity. The electricity shocks people and that's how I know and why I think bottled water will be the best conductor. It is known that many metals are the best ways to conduct electricity, so that is why I did not use pure metals for my experiment. Copper is known to be the best conductor and that is why people use them for lights and other things that need electricity. I did not use copper for my experiment to make a fair test.

Problem

The problem I was trying to figure out, was what liquids or materials make the best conductors. The reason I was trying to figure this out was because I was wondering what liquids or materials can conduct electricity and shock somebody.'

Abstract

For my science fair project, I decided to test different liquids and materials to see which ones would make good and bad conductors. I predicted that paper would be the best conductor for the materials, but bottled water would make the best liquid conductor. Overall I think that the bottled water would be the best conductor out of the things I tested. I decided to think this because I know that electricity can travel through lakes, rivers, and other places with water, and I thought that it would be the same with bottled water.

For my project I borrowed a digital multimeter from the science room to test my experiment. I made sure that it was switched to the omega sign, which stands for ohms. After that I got the different liquids and materials such as wood, plastic, water, soda, and many other testable items. I simply put the items in front of the digital multimeter and used the wires to test it. I counted for ten seconds to read the number shown. Each time I had the wires touching the liquid or material one centimeter apart from each other to make it a fair test. When finding the reading, I looked for letters such as “K” and “M”. “K” meant one thousand, and “M” meant one million. While testing the liquids I made sure it was fair so I measured two oz and poured it into a bowl.

After I finished testing, I realized that a tablespoon made the best conductor out of the materials. The tablespoon ended up with a reading of .2 ohms. The closest one after that was V8 Low Sodium which read, .269 ohms. After the V8 was Coca Cola which read, .53 ohms. The final top reading was mouthwash which read, .35 K. While testing I found some things that were resistant, like paper, wood, cardboard, glass, and plastic.

My hypothesis was incorrect because I predicted that the bottled water, 81 K, would make the best conductors when it was really one of the worst of the liquids and materials. My experiment was fairly accurate because the numbers on the digital multimeter would change every second or seconds. I could have improved my project by adding more materials, and testing the liquid or material more than two times. While doing this project I learned that many liquids can conduct electricity very well, but importantly, I learned that science is always enjoyable.

Conclusion

After I finished my project I realized that a tablespoon would make the best conductor. With this information I noticed that my hypothesis was incorrect. I could have improved this project by testing all of the materials more then twice. I could have also made it more of a fair test by testing more materials and balancing the liquids and materials.