Chem IA Data Analysis

[Dropkick]

Hi guys, my chemistry teacher has been throwing us a lot of IA's lately and she keeps going on about how we arent analysing our data well enough. I know that you are supposed to use the experiments repetitions to find averages, SD etc, and then usually go through a test of significance like the t-test.

But, for a typical chemistry experiment there wont be many test repetitions (only 3 for my last one ) so its impossible to do a significance test (as you need 10 or so)..

My question then is, what have you all done that is considered 'data analysis' ? I am stuck for ideas besides mean/SD/percentage with my crappy repetition number. If anyone knows any other tests or anything that I could do, that would be helpful

Anything and everything said will be valuable

PS. Maybe I should just man-up and do more tests

[Hedron123]

The conditions for a t-test to be performed are: the sample size is less than 30 and the sample presents a normal distribution. It is generally carried out when a proper conclusion cannot be derived from simple sight due to the existence of a divergence with respect to the mean (Standard Deviation). I believe that you can perform the t-test though 3 repetitions are not enough to sustain a conclusion; you cannot rush into a conclusion with only 3 repetitions since this would be scientifically "weak".

Regards.