Alicia Sanchez

Experimental write-up
Light Wavelength
For our experiment, we chose to investigate how the light wavelength affected the
rate of photosynthesis. To do this, we measured the seconds it took for leaves
without oxygen to start photosynthesizing and therefore how long it took for them
to start floating. We used a card board box to block any other light source and
made a hole in the box through where we shined a lamp. We covered the whole
with different colored filters to change the light that the leaf discs received;
however, we didnt get the result we expected. Not a single leaf disc floated with
any of the filter papers. Our prediction had been that when using the red and the
blue filter papers at least 5 of the leaf discs would rise (we used ten for each
experiment) because those are the wavelengths that leaves absorbs and use for
photosynthesizing. We expected that with the green filter, almost no leaf discs would rise because
leaves reflect this light, they dont use it. Finally, the yellow filter mostly caused green light so we
expected the same results that with the green filter. We waited about twenty minutes before
changing each filter, however all of the leaves stayed at the bottom of the beakers.
I believe our experiment wasnt successful because of the following reasons:
1. We may have damaged the leaves when we cut them out, so the tissues died and stopped
photosynthesizing.
2. The light from the lamp may not have been intense enough; we should have used extreme
intensity like the light used in green houses.
3. The filters could have been stopping the leaves from receiving the sufficient amount of light.
4. We might have used a leaf that wasnt appropriate for this experiment.
If we do the experiment again, I would like to use a bigger lamp and also another type of leaf.
Overall, I think that even if we didnt get the results we expected, we carried out our investigation in
an efficient way and considered all the variables that could impact our results.