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A Second Look
The girls studied the data. It looked like the synthetic sponge
soaked up about 5 more grams of water than the natural sponge.
“Hmmm,” said Teasha, “it looks like the natural sponge isn’t better,
at least not better at soaking up water. But you know what? I want to
try one more thing. Let’s squeeze as much water out of the sponges
as we can. Then, starting with the damp sponges, we will repeat the
experiment exactly. Then we will be sure our results are accurate.”
Kim thought that was a good idea. They repeated the experiment
and recorded these data.
Sponge
Mass of
sponge (g)
Mass of
wet sponge (g)
Mass of
water (g)
Synthetic 1
7
45
38
Synthetic 2
8
46
38
Synthetic 3
8
45
37
Natural 1
7
41
34
Natural 2
8
40
32
Natural 3
7
39
32
Sponge
Mass of
sponge
(g)
Mass of
wet sponge (g)
Mass of
water (g)
Synthetic 1
5
45
40
Synthetic 2
5
46
41
Synthetic 3
5
45
40
Natural 1
5
41
36
Natural 2
5
40
35
Natural 3
5
39
34
12