How Much Water Is In Orange?

Have you ever eaten an orange? Have you thought of asking yourself why this fruit is so juicy? Fruits like oranges are mostly made up of water which caused the fruit to be juicy. In this experiment you’ll be able to determine what percentage of an orange is made up of water and what percentage is made up of solids. When you’re done with this experiment you’ll be able to answer how much is the water content of an orange.

PROBLEM

How much percentage of water is in an orange?

HYPOTHESIS

Since oranges are juicy, it is assumed that there are lots of fluids in an orange; not less than 60% water in a single orange.

MATERIALS

• An orange (average size)
• Paper towel
• Kitchen knife
• Aluminum foil
• Weighing scale

• Pen or pencil

• Logbook to record results and data
• Electric fan or blower
• Desk lamp (150 watts)

PROCEDURE

1. Prepare all the materials needed for the experiment.
2. Weigh the orange through a weighing scale.
3. Note down the weight in grams the logbook. This is going to be the control or the value that will determine the percentage of water as the experiment goes on.
4. Using a kitchen knife, cut the orange in very thin slices to speed up the drying process. Do not apply too much pressure during slicing. Do not also cut the orange into wedges as this will slow the drying process.
5. Take a large sheet of aluminum foil.
6. Place the paper towel down on top of the aluminum foil. Put it in the center.
7. Weigh the aluminum foil and paper towel on the weighing scale.
8. Record the weight of the aluminum foil and paper towel. These values will be needed to accurately determine the water’s percentage later on.
9. Spread the sliced oranges on the large sheet of aluminum foil with paper towel on the table.
10. Make sure that the sliced oranges on the aluminum foil with paper towel have been placed on a flat surface and in a warm location.
11. Mount the desk lamp 1 foot above the sliced oranges. This is now the starting point of drying process.
12. With a distance of 5 feet away from the sliced oranges, turn on the electric fan with the current directed towards them.
13. Every 3 hours, check the progress of the drying process.
14. If the orange slices are fully dried after 12 hours, weigh the aluminum foil with the orange slices on your weighing scale.
15. Don’t forget to deduct the weight of the paper towel  and the aluminum foil.
16. Record the weight in your logbook.
17. Determine the percentage of water in the orange.

RESULTS / ANALYSIS OF DATA

The dried orange slices are weighed after the drying process. You must deduct the weight of the aluminum foil and paper towel.

For example:

If your dried orange = 75 grams and your and aluminum foil with the paper towel = 15, you should subtract 15 from 75 = 60 grams.

To be able to get the percentage of solids in the orange, you must divide the weight of the dried orange by the weight of the orange when your first weighed it. For example, if your orange was originally 300grams and the adjusted dried weight is 60grams, you would divide 60 by 300 and multiply by 100.

For example:

Adjusted dried weight = 60 and the original weight = 300, you should divide 60 / 30 x 100 = 20%, the solids percentage

Finally, we will be able to determine the water percentage through the following formula:

((original weight – adjusted dried weight) / original weight) * 100 = water percentage
ex: ((300 – 60) / 300) * 100 = 80%

Another way of determining the water percentage of the orange is easy as deducting the 20% solids percentage from 100% which gives us the answer of 80%.

CONCLUSION

Based on the sample values, it is therefore concluded that the results matched the assumption or hypothesis which states that the water percentage of an orange is 80%, not less than 60% in value.