Home > A Level > Biology > The Strength of Plant fibres

The Strength of Plant fibres

You can download this essay for free. All you need to do is register and submit at least one of your essays to us.

Or you can purchase this essay for just $2 instantly without registering

Downloads to date: N/A | Words: 359 | Submitted: 05-May-2011
Spelling accuracy: 97.5% | Number of pages: 0 | Filetype: Word .doc

Description

Experiment on whether the plant fibres or manufactured fibres are stronger

Preview

The strength of plant fibres
The aim of this investigation is to extract fibres from a plant leaf and investigate their strength against commercially manufactured fibres.
Background: Fibres have been extracted from plant parts i.e. stem, leaves for centuries to commercially manufacture a wide range of textile and paper.
Method: Using a scalpel, scrap away the outer layer of the leaf by gently rubbing the top layer with the scalpel. Then gently pull fibres away from the plant leaf.
Measure a length of a fibre using ruler
Tie a fibre on a hook and hang it on a clamp. Then pull it using weights. Continue adding weights until the fibre rips.
Repeat the experiment using commercial fibres.
Amount of weights in g
Fibres
1st try
2nd try
3rd try
average
Plant Fibre
170
150
160
160
Manufactured fibre
280
260
250
263.3

These results show that plant fibres are weaker than manufactured fibres. Even though plant fibres are made of cellulose and cross linked fibres, it was weaker than manufactures fibres. The manufactured fibres are well stronger than plant fibres as it can take up more weights. It’s a surprise that the plant fibres managed to hold that much weight because I thought it would be weaker. So the plant fibres were quite strong as it has not been treated chemically to make them stronger. The manufactured fibres will obviously be stronger because the plant fibres were chemically treated.
Errors: It was difficult to ...

Download this essay in full now!

Just upload at one of your essays to our database and instantly download your selection! Registration takes seconds

Or you can download this essay for $2 immediately without registering

---

Comments and reviews

Reviews are written by members who have downloaded the essay

No comments yet. If you download the essay you can review it afterwards.