Making Indicators

Aim: To make acid-base indicators using everyday substances.

Method:
Chop the beetroot into small pieces until you have enough to fill 2 cups.
Place the beetroot in a large beaker and add water to cover the beetroot.
Boil over Bunsen burner for at least ten minutes for the colour to leach out of the beetroot.
Filter out the plant material to obtain a red-purple-bluish coloured liquid. This liquid is at about pH 7, (The exact colour you get depends on the pH of the water)
place in a small beaker and leave to one side.

Results:
Beetroot: (Yellow/Red) (Yellow)
Cabbage: (Red/Pink) (Green)
Tea: (Yellow) (Yellow)
Tumeric: (Yellow) (Red/Orange)
Cranberry: (Pink) (Green)

Discussion:  We went through the process of adding different chemicals to our everyday substance indicators and each chemical changed to show us if it was a strong base, weak base or strong acid and weak acid by colour changing.

Conclusion: We made our indicators to show what chemicals are acids and bases. I think that beetroot worked better.