Luke+J13

Luke Johnson Cary Academy
 * THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT VARIABLES ON THE AMOUNT OF UV LIGHT ABSORBED BY UV BEADS **


 * ABSTRACT **

The purpose of this study is to find out what substance protects the skin from the ultraviolet light from the sun. The electromagnetic spectrum is a scale of light that is organized from high to low frequency and long to short wavelength, and contains UV light, visible light, x rays, gamma rays, infrared, microwaves and radio waves. Three UV beads were placed inside flat polyester, cotton and nylon/spandex T-shirts, held in direct sunlight for 2 min and the intensity of UV light measured on a paper UV scale. This is because the color white is made up of every color, and an object only reflects the color that it is back into the eyes, and white therefore reflects not only color, but also UV light. Black, on the other hand, is not made up of any colors, and absorbs every color, as well as UV light.


 * EXPERIMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS AND FUTURE EXPERIMENTS **

The way the different variables affected the UV beads could have been tested differently. For instance, the small cardboard box used in the experiments with glass and sunscreen could have been replaced with a glass box instead, because the shade that the cardboard box produced could have affected the results. It would be interesting to conduct further experiments where some of these variables could be combined, for example if wearing 55 SPF sunscreen and a white t-shirt could reduce the UV number to zero.