The Cabbage Indicator Experiment

The Cabbage Indicator Experiment
My hypothesis for this experiment is if I put an acid or a base in to a neutral then it will change colors.
My hypothesis was correct in assuming that it would change colors with different substances or mixtures. If I put an acid or a base in to a neutral then it will change colors. The red cabbage indicator did change colors. Greens for bases and reds and pinks for acids. An alternative hypothesis for this could be “If the red cabbage indicator is purple then adding a base or an acid will turn it different colors other than purple if the mixture is not artificially dyed.” Further experiments I could do are varying the potency of the bases and acids to see if I could also get a neutralization reaction without the fumes. I could also see how acidic “the works” is by seeing how long it takes for it to strip paint.
The Procedure for this experiment was done firstly with fresh red cabbage tissues that were cut into discs with almost same shape (approximately 3 mm wide) by cork borer. After 42 red cabbage discs were collected, they were washed with water in a small beaker.Then 7 test tubes were labeled 30℃, 40℃, 50℃, 60℃, 70℃, 78℃ and 97℃. The same amount of water was added to each tube. Meanwhile a large beaker with about 200cm3 water was heated, using burner, tripod and gauze. A thermometer was used to measure temperature of each tube. 6 red cabbage discs were impaled together on a mounted needle, then put in the large beaker when the water inside reached 60℃ (the beaker was preheated to 50℃). After 1 minute in the water bath, 6 red cabbage discs were dropped into the test tube labeled 60℃ then the tube was removed to a rack. This process was repeated until finishing the tube labeled 97℃. The 4 test tubes were shaken and observed their color. The discs were left into the tubes until the end of this experiment. Finally, the temperature of water in the big beaker was waited to decrease to 50℃, 40℃ and 30℃.
Results:
The color of the solution and the red cabbage discs is considered.
Test tube labeled /℃
Color of solution
Color of red cabbage discs
30
Colorless
Violet
40
Colorless
Violet
50
Colorless
Violet
60
Nearly colorless with very light purple compared to white paper
Violet
70
Relative darker purple
2 discs were light purple; others were white
78
Light violet (lighter than 70℃’s)
All white
97
Light violet (darker than 80℃’s but lighter than 70℃’s)
All white
Why are acid and base indicators important? How could they be used in everyday life?
They're important for giving a pretty good estimate of the pH of a solution.
How can they be used in everyday life? Well people normally don't go around carrying a bunch of acid/base indicators with them. They're used more for academic purposes like:
1. determining pH of the soil - soil must be neither acidic nor alkaline for healthy growth of plants.
2. determining pH of water - e.g. acid rain (it is an environmental issue); fish cannot survive in acidic water.
3. pH of body fluids is needed to determine cause of diseases
a. pH in our digestive system - e.g. hyper acidity
b. pH of saliva - if < 5.5 it can cause tooth decay
c. pH of blood is nearly 7.4
4. pH is used in self-defence of animals and plants
5. there's also pH in the fruits and veggies that you eat and also on fluids that you drink.