4. Discussion

1. Discussion
1. Key findings & Analysis of results

Based on our results, we can see that the amount of sugar stated on the can is fairly similar to that of the measured sugar concentration, using the hollow prism method. We can see that the amount of sugar in the canned drinks are as follow: Rootbeer has 11.7g of sugar, Coke has 10g of sugar, juz plus has 10g of sugar, Schweppe has 8.8g of sugar, Teazzle has 7.5g of sugar and sprite has 6.3g of sugar.

2. Explanation of Key Findings

The higher the sugar concentration, the more light bends (higher refractive index). The refractive index is increasing because the solution is getting thicker, creating a denser medium with a higher refractive index.(Kieran S. Mital, 2010) The sugar in the different drinks cause the density of the solution to get thicker.(Yan J, 2016)

3. Evaluation of Hypothesis

Hypothesis: When a laser is shined through an equilateral hollow prism filled with solutions of different concentrations of sugar at the correct angle, we will observe that the laser dot is refracted (due to the density of the solution) further away from the control point (laser shining through plain water).

Base on our results, we can see that this method of measuring sugar concentration in a drink is accurate but can be affected by many different factors. As this method requires the density of the solution to become denser due to the presence of sugar, chemicals in the drinks that we used could affect the density of the drink, causing inaccuracy in our results.

4. Limitations and Areas for Improvement

Limitations:

• Getting a hollow prism on hand (finding a hollow prism).

• Unknown accuracy of material (clear acrylic PVC). We noticed that the laser was refracted slightly compared with empty prism vs direct laser pointing at point “b”.
• Accuracy of refracted ray is greatly affected by rotating the prism such that the refracted ray “blue line (df)” is parallel to the “base of the prism line (gh)”.

Areas for Improvement:

Limitations:	Suggested area for improvement:
- There was leakage from the hollow prism we made, so we had to use a lot of hot glue to ensure that it did not leak.	- We can try to heat up the plastic and melt them together.
- Bubbles from the carbonated drinks may have caused the experiment to be inaccurate.	- Open the cans and leave them overnight to ensure that there are no bubbles to cause inaccuracy in the experiment.
- There was difficulty in ensuring that the refracted ray “blue line (df)” is parallel to the “base of the prism line (gh)”.	- We can use trial and error to adjust the refracted ray “blue line (df)” accordingly.