Food Science B

[knittingfrenzy18]

Hi there,

@coachmom, good that you've scoured the wiki! FYI, I have changed the Food Science article drastically in the last week.
I see your problem now--we've had that problem. My only suggestions are:
1. Go out and buy absolutely fresh stuff. (Our corn syrup was too thick because it was old. New corn syrup worked!
2. Make sure room temperature is the same.
3. Do not heat it to cheat! Unless you can do the absolute same at the contest, do not! In other words, it's not going to help your graph.
4. Make sure it's Karo Corn Syrup, Dark or Light.
5. Remember you're cutting the time when it breaks flow, not when it all runs out.
If all fails above,
6. Do not include this point on your graph. You should not get points off for this.

@AKTU01, First plot your graph the way you have it first. Now click on one of the points in the graph. Right-click on it, and Insert Trend Line or something similar. Now right click the trend line and click format trend line. Now you can select the trend line to be a curve. (Alternatively, you could have a straight trend line, but this competition wishes for a standard CURVE.)
Another bashy solution is to print it out and draw a curve generally following the trend of the points.

Hope it helped both of you,
Red

[AKTU01]

Thank you! This was very helpful.

[Scipuppy]

Hi there,

@coachmom, good that you've scoured the wiki! FYI, I have changed the Food Science article drastically in the last week.
I see your problem now--we've had that problem. My only suggestions are:
1. Go out and buy absolutely fresh stuff. (Our corn syrup was too thick because it was old. New corn syrup worked!
2. Make sure room temperature is the same.
3. Do not heat it to cheat! Unless you can do the absolute same at the contest, do not! In other words, it's not going to help your graph.
4. Make sure it's Karo Corn Syrup, Dark or Light.
5. Remember you're cutting the time when it breaks flow, not when it all runs out.
If all fails above,
6. Do not include this point on your graph. You should not get points off for this.

Thanks, we were wondering about that as well, but what brand and type of molasses have you been using? We've been getting consistent times for the corn syrup, but our molasses times have been going all over the place depending on the type of molasses and the brand, and none of them have seemed to fit in with the rest of the data.
Thanks.

[knittingfrenzy18]

I'm not sure it matters--we used "Grandma's"? I forget the name exactly. It has a orange yellowish wrapping.

Also make sure the room temperature is constant, no one's using the microwave. Expect the higher viscosity to get a little more all over the place.

[135scioly]

Hey, I had my state comp yesterday, and my partner and i didnt know the answer to this question:
What is the common chemical formula for a carbohydrate compound? Or something along those lines... Does anyone know the answer?

[Skink]

Well, all carbs you've seen probably had the formula CxHyOz. THen we look at Wikipedia to check that, and we find...Cm(H2O)n as the general formula of a carbohydrate. Think that was the answer?

[135scioly]

I seriously have no idea, but if thats what wikipedia said, I bet its true. Too bad it wasn't in our notes! Thanks though.

[knittingfrenzy18]

Yes, the best general formula is where most commonly and are the same number.

[i8maps]

On real nutrition labels, the Calorie count total is rounded, in competition, should we round or should we put the exact number?

[135scioly]

I would say specific, because they can't take off for not rounding.

[knittingfrenzy18]

Please put the computed number without rounding.

It is more specifically said this way: if something has 4g of fat, it probably isn't; it's probably closer to 3.6g or something. This is the way the manufacturers get a more exact Calorie count. Also, yes, manufacturers often round to the nearest 10. However, if the event supervisors are smart, they have covered the manufacturers' number and have computed the number you will compute. This will be the correct answer.

Basically, if you round, you might not even get what the manufacturer said, and the event supervisor is supposed to give you points for what you've computed straight out of the box; fat times 9, carbs and protein times 4.

[labchick]

What are your best study tips for this event? I just got put on it for Nats. I did it at Regionals, but didn't put a ton of time into it and didn't medal.

[rhms]

WHAT AMOUNT OF NOTES CAN WE BRING? Because I swear it was a binder and now its only one sheet of paper...

[summit]

According to the rules, you may bring a three-ring binder

[JKrafsur]

Yes summit is right, you are allowed a binder of any size into competition, but be sure to have it organized. If you dont have that done, its never going to help you at competition. Almost everything at our regional competition (if you werent in the northern region) was about chemistry and chemical properties of foods. That and chemical testing are probably the most important things