PCR - Spring 2013

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Plot of the Amperage (mA) as a function of the time (hour) The procedure began every day at 1:00 p.m., and ended trols. No trendline was added, since it is unsure what at 11:00 a.m. the following day. At 1:00 p.m. every day, type of trendline the data should follow. However, it all pots would be watered once to their fullest capacis apparent that as the amount of light decreases, so ity (where there was water dripping out of the bottom does the amperage, as is shown by the line connectof each pot). This was done to ensure that there was an ing the points. identical amount of water in each pot, to eliminate one of the unknown factors. Then, a measure of the voltage DISCUSSION and amperage was taken immediately after watering, and As shown by the data and graph, there is a once every hour afterwards until 3 a.m. in the morning. significant difference in the amperage between the Measurements would then be taken once again at 11 a.m. moss pots and the control. That means that the moss the next morning, and then the cycle would start over does make a difference, though the data doesn’t again at 1 p.m., two hours later. The status of the light at describe exactly how. However, the voltage was the time the measurements were taken was also noted, constant along all pots, so according to Ohm’s Law as the set-up was placed near a large screen window, so (V=IR), there must be a difference in the resistance light was a factor. to result in a difference in the amperage between the The data table on the previous page is an average moss pots and the controls. Because the amperage of all of the measurements recorded over the two-week of the moss pots is higher than that of the controls, span. This table includes only the measurements of amit must mean that the resistance of the moss pots is perage and not voltage, since voltage was fairly constant lower than that of the controls. That should indicate among all pots at all times (~.66 V), whether they conthat the resistance of the soil affects the generation of tained moss or not. The left most column contains the current. time elapsed after the pots have been watered, and cor Though there were no significant differences responds to the 2nd column from the left, the time of day. in amperage between the controls themselves (only In the 3rd and last column is the status of the lighting and varying between 0 and 5 mA for the large part), states whether there is house lighting, natural lighting, there were between the moss pots. As per the data, both, or neither. it seems that either the amount of water in the soil The graph above is obtained from the results in (directly related to the time elapsed), the amount of the data table. It shows the plot of the amperage in millilight hitting the moss, or both, factor into the current amps as a function of the time elapsed in hours. The line generated. Unfortunately, the two factors were not marked by diamonds represents the averages of all values isolated and tested separately, which is something recorded over the two week span for the four moss pots, that will be talked about in future research. So it is and the line marked by squares represents the four con-


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