Jean Lab

In this lab we asked the question what concentration of bleach is best to fade the color out of new denim in 10 minutes without visual damage to the fabric .We found that a 25% concentration of bleach gives results without damaging the fabric. 25% got a ranking of 4 in the color ranking system, 10 being the color faded all the way to white and 0 being the color wasn't affected. It also got a ranking of 0 for fabric damage, therefore there was no damage done to the jeans. The 25% jeans faded in color but still have a tint of denim blue in them. 100% bleach got a ranking of 7 in color removal, and 4 in fabric in damage. 50% got a 5 in color removal, and a 2 in fabric damage. 12.5% got 1 for color removal, and 0 for fabric damage. 0% got 0 for both color removal and fabric damage. Since we know that bleach breaks down color pigments, a certain amount of bleach combined with water will remove color, but the more water and less bleach, the less of color change there will be. This data supports our claim because as the concentration of bleach went down, so did the value of color removal and fabric damage.

While our hypothesis was supported by our data, some errors occurred. The water in the beaker we used to make concentrations got contained when we poured from the graduated cylinder, which had bleach in it, to the beaker. This may have effected the results of color removal and fabric damage because it might have made the concentrations stronger, therefore the value of color removal and fabric damage might have been altered. Another error was that we left out some jeans too long after soaking them in each concentration before soaking in them in water to remove the bleach concentration, which may have also caused the value of color removal and fabric damage to increase. Due to this error, in future experiments I would recommend trying to be more precise in timing and switching out anything that got contaminated.

This lab was done to familiarize ourselves with the scientific method. From this lab I learned how to use the scientific method during labs which helps me understand the concepts of properly controlling an experiment and measuring certain units. Based on my experience from this lab, I now know how to use the scientific method during labs and will be able to complete labs more efficiently.