Abstract

Austin Childers

The purpose of this experiment was to find which alcohol dehydrates an orange more. In turn this was supposed to give me an idea of which one would dehydrate a persons' body more. I believe that the higher the proof of alcohol, the higher the dehydration rate will be.

To carry out the experiment I bought five oranges. I cut holes into each one of them. Then they were weighed and twenty-five milliliters of liquid was poured into the appropriate one. The five liquids that I used were 100 proof alcohol, 80 proof alcohol, 70 proof alcohol, 48 proof alcohol, and water. The weigh difference of before and after the experiment was then evaluated.

The orange with the water in it was the least dehydrated of the five oranges at 2.1g of dehydration. The 48 proof alcohol was weighed 4.5g less than when weighed before. The 70 proof alcohol was 4.1g less than when weighed before. The 80 proof was 2.4g less than when weighed before. The 100 proof was 4.9g less than when weighed before.

The 100 proof alcohol showed the most difference, as expected. The 48 proof alcohol showed the next highest, which was not expected. Then the 70 proof alcohol followed and the 80 proof alcohol followed. The water followed all alcohol, as expected with least amount of dehydration.

The higher the proof of alcohol is commonly believed to dehydrate the body more. This experiment showed that is not always the case. The largest proof of alcohol did dehydrate the orange the most, but the other three did not follow in that order.