Before My Fog Project

As part of my science class, I am performing a science project with regards to fog, since I have been studying it for my past week of school. I plan on measuring the volume of fog when changing the difference of the temperatures that create fog. As I have said in my article about fog, it is created when there is a major temperature change in a humid area. In nature this is caused by either sea currents of different temperatures meeting and mixing, or when the sun goes down and leaves warm ground and cool air. In my experiment I will be using uniform amounts of Dry Ice, which has a permanent temperature of 109 degrees Fahrenheit (since it’ll melt instead of warm up), in a bowl to simulate a temperature, and I will put a uniform amount of water into the bowl to create the necessary humidity and different temperature. Due to the difference of the temperature of the water and Dry Ice, fog should erupt from the bowl. I will then place a tall plastic tube over the bowl before the fog erupts, to see any difference in the volume of the created fog when I change the heat of the water. My theory is that the colder the water, the less fog that I’ll create, since the relative temperature between the water and Dry Ice will be less than with hot water, which should make more fog. To measure how much fog I’ll be making, I’m writing on a paper that will then be taped to the opposite side of the clear plastic tube. This will allow me to see whether or not the fog gets thicker as the temperature changes. I expect the fog will get thicker more than it grows taller, since its weight should condense the air below it, but I’ll also make tick marks at one inch intervals on the side of the tube that will be facing me, to know how much the height of the fog changes, especially as I could be wrong and it doesn’t condense, just flowing upwards instead.

With regards to possible errors, I believe that the fact that I am using Dry Ice in the experiment shouldn’t mess with the fogs consistency, since frozen carbon dioxide gas, which dry ice is, is not visible once it melts into its gaseous state, and the chemical will be leaving the water directly as it melts, which may cause some bubbling in the fog, but it shouldn’t do anything that might change the findings. This is meant to reassure you that the fog will be made out of the water, and not from any form of chemical reaction, other than the natural ones. The difference in temperatures shouldn’t effect the quantity of water, and therefore fog, in any meaningful way, since I won’t actually be boiling it. The bowl will displace some fog, but again, not enough to majorly change the findings. Besides, I could always find the volume of the bowl. The only other problem I can foresee is fog escaping when I drop the tube over the bowl, but I don’t really expect that to be a problem, since I’ll have a helper to do it nearly as I pour the water. I will address these problems again after I perform the experiment and write my post about it and my findings.