Purpose: To find out which detergent brand (Tide/medium price, Ultra/medium price, Woolite/expensive, Sunlight/cheap, Plain water/free) works the best on a stained rug. Each piece of fabric will consist of the same material, have the same type of stain, will be stirred the same quantity of time, and have an equal amount of detergent.
Materials: Water, 5 cut pieces from a stained fabric, 5 Beakers, 5 stirring glass sticks, measuring cup, scissors, 5 drops of each detergent, and 5 thumb tacks.
Hypothesis: I predict that all will be the same except plain water. The reason being is that there has never really been concrete evidence (since we started washing clothes with detergent) that one brand is best. Thus, I think Woolite is be a bad deal because you can choose another effective detergent for a lower price.
Procedure: To begin this experiment, we need the 5 beakers to be filled with an equal amount of water. Then we will cut our stained rag into 5 pieces each with 5 drops of one of the brands available (1 just water). Then we drop and stir the cloths in their own separate beaker for 10 seconds each, before we remove them and wring them out. Finally we stick each on the wall with our thumb tacks and compare the next class.
Observations:
Day 1: After completing the process to all pieces of cloth, it looks like Tide and Woolite have been the most effective so far but the difference between them and the others is not significant except water (not a surprise). I still believe that all brands will have the same effect on the cloth and we will see if my claim is correct at the next class.
Day 2: After viewing all the cloths the next school day, it is clear that none of the cloths have really changed from the class before. It looks like Tide was most effective but again the difference of cleanliness is not drastic. Every other cloth (again, except water) looks to have been equally clean.
Conclusion: I believe I am correct when I say that all brands are almost equally effective but my group and I both agree that Tide is the overall victor. It may in fact be the best brand but I think more experiments must be done. For example, stain a part of a golf shirt, put it alongside other cloths in the wash, and test the effectiveness on those brands again to truly know which is the most effective.
Other Interesting Questions:
I wonder what would happen if we added more detergent to the cloth pieces?
I wonder if other famous brands (ie. Gain, Fleecy, and Oxy clean) would work well against Tide?
Great work.
Thanks!
Mr G Horton
ghorton@sd43.bc.ca