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Geology 1

The students conducted an experiment to determine how texture affects the growth of aluminum potassium sulfate crystals. They hypothesized that rougher surfaces would promote more crystal growth. They tested smooth glass, bumpy rock, and rough wood surfaces. The results showed that the wood grew the most crystals, even though it was not the roughest surface. The crystals on the glass and rock fell off after growing. The students concluded that surface texture is not the only factor, and that wood grew best likely due to its mild roughness and lack of dark areas where crystals did not form.

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95 views3 pages

Geology 1

The students conducted an experiment to determine how texture affects the growth of aluminum potassium sulfate crystals. They hypothesized that rougher surfaces would promote more crystal growth. They tested smooth glass, bumpy rock, and rough wood surfaces. The results showed that the wood grew the most crystals, even though it was not the roughest surface. The crystals on the glass and rock fell off after growing. The students concluded that surface texture is not the only factor, and that wood grew best likely due to its mild roughness and lack of dark areas where crystals did not form.

Uploaded by

api-445107651
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Experiment

Question:

How does texture affect the growth of aluminum potassium sulfate crystals?

Rationale:

The best surface is what crystal growers should use.

What we know from our research: Crystals grow when more atoms are added to the crystal.

The process of crystal forming is called crystallization. Crystals form in nature when liquids get
cold and start to harden. molecules in the liquid go together as they try to become stable. They do this in
a repeating pattern that forms the crystal.

Crystals can have very flat surfaces called facets. They can form geometric shapes such as
triangles, rectangles, and squares. The shapes are a direct result of the type of molecules and atoms that
make up the crystal

An ice crystal is made up of ice crystal, water vapor, and dust. When water vapor freezes on
microscopic dust it turns into an ice crystal

Our Hypothesis:

We think that rougher surfaces will work better because the crystal will have more things to grow on.

Sites we used for our research:

Ducksters.com

Wonderopolis.org

Carolina.com

Materials:

1. Rock (bumpy)
2. Glass (smooth)
3. Wood (rough)
4. aluminum potassium sulfate crystals

Steps of our experiment:

1. Get wood from the playground which had wood chips.


2. We got glass by smashing a bottle in a bag and picking out the best piece.
3. We got a rock by going down to the field and going near the fence where there is a lot of rocks.
4. Get Aluminum Potassium Sulfate from Carolina.com.
5. Boil water.
6. Use the water to dissolve the Aluminum Potassium Sulfate.
7. Then we grow the crystals,

Steps for growing crystals,

7.1. first, we make a super saturated solution for the surfaces (rock, wood, and glass.)

7.2. Then, we put the surfaces in the solution.

7.3. The, we wait for it to grow.

7.4 Then we write the conclusion. (wood grew best)

Our Results:(pictures and graphs)

Our Test: The wood grew best and it had crystals all over it. The rock had a lot of crystals, but the
crystals slid right off, and it ended up with only a little bit of crystals on it. The same thing happened
with the glass.

Here are five observations we noticed.

1. The wood grew the most and there were crystals all around it.
2. The rock, wood, and glass all had crystals in the bottle, but the crystals did not stay on and were
stuck at the bottom
3. The rock didn’t grow as much as we thought it would grow and we also thought the wood
wouldn't grow.
4. We noticed on the lighter parts of the wood it grew more crystals and the darker parts had
none.

Names of experts we contacted: (in your field of study)

Mr. Hagers, Mr. Abers, Mr. Saiers, Mr. Archer

Conclusion

Looking at our results, our original hypothesis was that rougher surfaces would work better. One way we
know our hypothesis is wrong is that the wood grew the best and it wasn’t the roughest surface, the rock
was. We think this happened because the dark parts and the smooth parts did not grow very well.
Another interesting that that happened was that the wood grew bigger crystals than the rock and the
glass. I think this was because the wood was not that dark and was mildly rough. In conclusion, it turns
out that the wood grew best.

The glass (left) had crystals grow on it but all the crystals fell off when we took it out of the container.

The rock (middle) did the same thing as the glass and all the crystals fell of when we took it out of the
container.

The wood (right) grew the best probably because it has the most edges and is rough.

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