Experiment

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The problem

If we exposed navy beans to different genres of music (rap, classical, pop and metal) which type of music would produce the fastest growth?

The hypothesis

We think that the music that produces the fastest growth in our chosen plant will be classical.    We chose it because, out of all our music it was the most relaxing, and we believe this will  soothe the plant and help it grow, not to mention there’s not a lot of base to disturb the roots. Also, there are scientists that believe that if you play classical music around a young baby, he will have a more mature and developed brain.  

Material

• 4 stereos that play CDs

• 5 plastic cups (Dixie)

• 5 pieces of paper towel

• 25 Navy beans

• 5 different environments all with natural light and roughly the same temperature

• Tap water

• 4 CDs, one CD per genre and each artist has one song (that’s two artists, one genre, two songs)

The method

Take the plastic cups and indicate it's genre of music with a sharpie, (rap, classical, rap,   pop or metal). Don't forget to indicate the controlled (the plant that will listen to no  music).

Dampen 5 paper towels and place them in each cup, make sure the paper towel isn’t jammed to the bottom, they should be spread out. 

Carefully place 10 Navy beans in ach cup. The beans can not touch and should not rest on top,    and uncovered. 

Place the 4 stereos in the chosen environments (with similar temperature and sun). Place a         CD in    each stereo, then place a cup 20cm away. Make sure the cup corresponds with the    music.

Place the controlled cup in its environment.

Every second day (starting today), water the plants with two table spoons of tap water.   Play the CD each day from 7:30 to 5:30, have it set on repeat so it plays the CD continuously,  Over a period of  two weeks observe.

The conclusion

In order of the best music for plant growth to the worst.

1. Rap

2. Pop

3. Classical

4. Metal

In conclusion our incorrect hypothesis was almost the exact opposite of what we       thought. Now  we know that it was more so the words of the songs then the vibrations    that affected the growth. It was proved by Mythbusters that when you scream at a plant      it will die, if you whisper it’s growth rate descends and finally if you talk to it the growth rate will increase. Those results explained our own.

Source of error

With so many factors such as sun and temperature, to conduct this experiment and respect all the factors would be very, very difficult. We where not respectful of those factors.

Observations

         Here is a sample of one of our many observation sheets                                               

Finally here is the graph of all the plants

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