Materials and Methods

 

The premise underlying your materials and methods section should be that someone should be able to use it to exactly duplicate your experiment and obtain the same or very similar results without any additional assistance. Therefore, this part of your experiment should be an exact account of what was done, the sequence of steps, the apparatus and materials used, and the way in which data were obtained and recorded (5: 121-123).

For our Volta pile experiment, choose from the following list of materials:

Materials:

--one strip of copper

--one strip of zinc

--one flask

--six strips of copper

--six strips of zinc

--five strips of filter paper

--lemon juice

--a voltmeter

--two cables with alligator clips

Methods:

Now choose from the following abbreviated statements of the method--which statement best satisfies the requirement that someone unfamiliar with the experiment should be able to reproduce the experiment exactly by simply following the procedure in this methods section?

We filled the flask with lemon juice. We arranged the strips of copper, zinc and filter paper in a "pile," following the arrangement shown in the diagram. Looked at from the top of the pile, the sequence of strips was as follows: zinc, copper, filter paper, zinc , copper, filter paper, etc. We connected one cable to the copper strip at the bottom of the pile with an alligator clip, and we connected the other end of this cable with an alligator clip to the negative terminal of the voltmeter. We connected the other cable to the zinc strip at the top of the pile with an alligator clip, and we connected the other end of this cable with an alligator clip to the positive terminal of the voltmeter.

We soaked each of the five strips of filter paper in the lemon juice. We arranged the strips of copper, zinc and filter paper in a "pile," following the arrangement shown in the diagram. Looked at from the top of the pile, the sequence of strips was as follows: zinc, copper, filter paper, zinc , copper, filter paper, etc. We connected one cable to the copper strip at the bottom of the pile with an alligator clip, and we connected the other end of this cable with an alligator clip to the negative terminal of the voltmeter. We connected the other cable to the zinc strip at the top of the pile with an alligator clip, and we connected the other end of this cable with an alligator clip to the positive terminal of the voltmeter.

We soaked each of the five strips of filter paper in the lemon juice. We arranged the strips of copper, zinc and filter paper in a "pile," following the arrangement shown in the diagram. Looked at from the top of the pile, the sequence of strips was as follows: zinc, copper, filter paper, zinc , copper, filter paper, etc. We connected one cable to the copper strip at the bottom of the pile with an alligator clip, and we connected the other end of this cable with an alligator clip to the negative terminal of the voltmeter.

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