Moisture Content
Fig 2 Legend: Comparison of average moisture content between soil samples collected from the Library location and the Tree location. The average moisture content of the Library location was found to be 18.0% and the Tree location was 22.0%, with their standard deviations being 7.8% and 13.5%. An unpaired t-test assuming unequal variance was calculated to determine that the two moisture contents were not statistically different with a p-value of 0.51 when using 0.05 confidence level.
Method: The weight of the original sample was collected in grams. Then the soil was heated to evaporate the moisture. The weight was calculated again, of the now dry soil, to determine the moisture content.
Evidence: The two moisture contents vary slightly and are not significantly different. The moisture content of the library sample was 18% and the tree sample was 22%. As there was only a difference of 4% between the two samples, it makes sense that the values do not differ significantly, and the p-value of 0.51 proved this.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that the two samples do not vary. The result of the t-test was a value greater than 0.05, proving that the values are not significantly different. This is determined in confidence due to the preformed t-test resulting in a value greater than 0.05, showing the two conditions have no statistically significant difference.
Explanation: The moisture content is most likely the same for both conditions due to the results of the t-test performed. This is possibly due to the fact that the two samples of soil had similar soil pore space. The size of the soil pore space is what determines the amount of water that is able to be absorbed (O'Geen 2013). This could also be due to the fact that on the day of the soil collection, it was raining very heavily.