Container B serves as a control in the experiment. Its purpose is to provide a baseline for comparison against Container A, which contains the radish seeds. By having a container without radish seeds (Container B), the student can observe the status of oxygen levels and the color of methylene blue in the absence of any biological activity that would consume oxygen. This allows the student to determine if any change in color observed in Container A (which contains the seeds) is due to the radish seeds consuming oxygen during germination. If Container B remains blue (indicating the presence of oxygen), while Container A turns colorless (indicating a lack of oxygen), it suggests that the radish seeds are indeed consuming oxygen as they germinate.
A student set up the experiment shown below to determine if radish seeds take in oxygen as they germinate. Methylene blue is a chemical that is blue when oxygen is present, but is colorless when oxygen is not present. Containers A and B each contained 200 mL of water and 10 drops of methylene blue. Ten radish seeds were added to container A. Container B had no radish seeds. What is the purpose of Conatiner B in this experiment?
1 answer