Jean Lab

In this lab we asked which concentration of bleach was the best to fade the color out of jeans in ten minutes without visibly damaging the pair of jeans. We found that 100% bleach was the most effective concentration of bleach for fading the color of new jeans, because none of our concentrations of bleach visibly damaged the denim, and 100% bleach faded the denim the most. To rate fading we used a scale of 0 to 10(with ten being completely faded, and 0 being not faded at all), the 100% bleach averaged 8, while 50% bleach only averaged 5 ⅔, 25%,12.5%, and 0% averaged 3 ⅔, ⅔, and 0 respectively. These results are aligned with what I already know about bleach. Bleach faded fabrics, and the more bleach there is, the more the fabric will fade. Bleach will also damage fabric if the fabric is exposed to it for a long period of time, but our fabric was not exposed long enough for that to occur. All this supports our claim that 100% bleach is ideal for bleaching jeans, because the none of the fabric pieces showed any damage, and the fabric exposed to 100% bleach ended up the most faded.

Our results are unexpected, because we expected the fabric exposed to 100% bleach to because damage, but none of the concentrations of bleach damaged the fabric. There were a couple sources of error. One of them was that our measurements were imprecise, which led to our concentrations of bleach being different than other people’s. Also due to doing multiple pieces of fabric at the same time, some pieces of fabric were left in the bleach longer than others, which led to uneven bleaching. Additionally, the top of one of the fabric pieces was never fully covered by bleach, which also led to uneven bleaching. Due to these errors I would recommend only putting one piece of fabric in the bleach at a time, and using eyedroppers for measurements.

This lab was done to demonstrate the scientific method and its proper usage. This helped me understand how to use the scientific method, and also how to write a conclusion in the proper format. The method I use to do this lab can be applied to any lab I do.

Color removal and fabric damage in relation to concentrations of bleach
Concentration (% bleach)	Average Color removal (on a scale of 0-10)	Average Fabric damage (on a scale of 0-10)	Comments
100	8	0
50	5.67	0
25	3.67	0
12.5	0.67	0
0 (pure water)	0	0