Cookiez' Biology SAC 1 Question thread! :D

[Cookiez]

Hi AN!

My first SAC is coming up, where we have to put beetroot into different solutions (Vinegar, Detergent and Distilled Water) in petri dishes and record the amount of pigment being released.

A question about recording results, I plan to record these results using hand-drawn pictures of the beetroot slices every 6 minutes over 30 minutes.
But, last year, I had heard from my friend that he just did that and the teacher said he needed quantitative results + qualitative results. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can retrieve quantitative results?! (I do not have access to any measuring machinery, e.g. Colourimeter. I thought of measuring the area of pigment released in comparison to the size of the petri dish, but I don't think I would have time during the writeup to calculate all of that!

My second question is, what will the difference be between the detergent and the vinegar dishes? I definitely know that the detergent will leak less beetroot pigment than the vinegar dish, but why would vinegar damage the plasma membrane more than the detergent dish?

My third question is, how are detergents amphithatic?

My fourth is, how exactly does pH affect proteins/enzymes?

Thankyou!

[saheh]

My second question is, what will the difference be between the detergent and the vinegar dishes? I definitely know that the detergent will leak less beetroot pigment than the vinegar dish, but why would vinegar damage the plasma membrane more than the detergent dish?

My third question is, how are detergents amphithatic?

This^^

[Starlight]

i've got these links which may help: (mainly for questions 2 and 4)

http://www.biology-online.org/biology-forum/about4404.html

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2004-03/1080223472.Cb.r.html

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=149499

SAC - 1 Structure and Function of a Phospholipid Membrane

and about detergent being an ampitathatic molecule:

http://www.rpi.edu/dept/bcbp/molbiochem/MBWeb/mb1/part2/lipid.htm

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Example_of_amphipathic_molecule

http://www.piercenet.com/Objects/view.cfm?type=Page&ID=B18FA922-2B9B-4BCD-A366-441F0CF37540

[Shenz0r]

Hey, I'm in the same boat as you right now but I'm a Year 12 bio boy.

For your second question, a detergent dish is more basic as it contains a higher concentration of hydroxide ions, while a vinegar dish is more acidic and contains a higher concentration of H+ ions.

[Cookiez]

ahaha okay, thanks for your answers and help guys!
But why does vinegar affect the beetroot more than the detergent?

[pi]

Just had a quick look at your qs, most of those questions can be easily answered by Biozone or NoB Chances are you'll get better (more detailed + diagrams) answers there than over here

[Cookiez]

I've looked and there isn't much information that goes into detail about this