Feist Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 For my IA I'm investigating the effect of differing light intensities on the rate of photosynthesis on corn plants. I was thinking of planting the plants, controlling all variables while waiting for them to sprout out of the soil, then apply the light. To do light intensity, I thought of buying a lamp or lamps and putting different watts of bulbs, like 5 10 15 and attaching a timer that would go on at the sunrise and sunset predicted for each day. Should the lights be flourescent? And would it be a more appropriate approach to change the distance of the light from the plant rather than the watts?Any other advice is welcome! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetnsimple786 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 You're going to want light but not heat, so fluorescent would be better than the normal incandescent ones. Can you buy small fluorescent bulbs? Cheaply? Once again, you don't want to spend a lot of money on your EE if there's no reason for it. I'd use natural sunlight as one source and then I'd think about changing distance rather than wattage, being careful about how much surface area you're exposing to the light. Honestly, I haven't thought about changing the intensity of light. Would results show a feasible difference? I would have just changed the time exposed to sunlight or something. How are you planning on collecting data? Make sure that doesn't interfere with the actual experiment. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feist Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 (edited) Well I just discovered that above my counters there is lighting consisting of those long fluorescent tubes, so they would be perfect for plants to sit under. The wattages are 20, 30 and 40. I'm also doing a "controlled" plant that sits in front of normal sunlight so even if the difference between the wattages aren't big enough I can still talk about artificial light as opposed to sunlight. I was just thinking of collecting data by measuring the height of the plants?I'm still not sure about time though, I'm worried that it's going to be really wasteful if I'm turning on those lights for hours on hours for 2 weeks.p.s. thanks for the response! Edited January 21, 2010 by Feist Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bescherelle Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Well I just discovered that above my counters there is lighting consisting of those long fluorescent tubes, so they would be perfect for plants to sit under. The wattages are 20, 30 and 40. I'm also doing a "controlled" plant that sits in front of normal sunlight so even if the difference between the wattages aren't big enough I can still talk about artificial light as opposed to sunlight. I was just thinking of collecting data by measuring the height of the plants?I'm still not sure about time though, I'm worried that it's going to be really wasteful if I'm turning on those lights for hours on hours for 2 weeks.p.s. thanks for the response!I remember doing a similar IA before. Varying distances is the best way to go, and use the same bulbs for every trialMeasure the height of the plants? wth, that would be pretty inconvenient. Look back at the factors that affect your rate of photosynthesis, and what makes photosynthesis "measurable".tbh, your over-complicating things. Make it as simple as possible. Idk what your teacher told you, but check with your friends, or PM me for more suggestions. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.