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Lab #3
How Ironic!
Exploration
Problem:
What mass of iron ingested by consuming breakfast cereal is
considered the u.s. Recommended Daily Allowance?
Materials:
iron fortified breakfast
cereal magnetic stirrer
(optional) neodymium magnet
Ziploc bag
1000 mL beaker
glass stirring rod
sensitive balance (0.01 grams)
Hazard Warning:
There are no hazards of usage or disposal of materials in
this activity.
Procedure:
Iron is added to breakfast cereals as powder or filings and
when ingested is dissolved in stomach acid. It is absorbed
into the body as it moves through the inteE;tines. Cereal
companies commonly advertise that one serving of their
product
provides
100%
of
the
U.S.
Food
and
Drug
Administration1s dietary Recommended Daily Allowance of
Iron.
Your task in this activity is to experimentally determine
what actual mass of iron represents the RDA.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Place one serving of one of the iron fortified cereals
available into a Ziploc bag and thoroughly crush the
cereal.
Pour the crushed cereal into a 1000 mL beaker and nearly
fill with very hot water.
place the beaker onto a heated, magnetic stirrer and
drop in a neodymium magnet. Run the stirrer until the
cereal is completely mushy. If no magnetic stirrer is
available, stir the mixture with a glass rod for about
20 minutes.
The neodymium magnet is strong enough to pull the iron
out of the mixture once the coating on the flakes is
dissolved. After carefully retrieving the magnet,
remove the iron from the magnet, dry it, and mass it to
find your experimental RDA.
1
Summing Up:
Represent2.
1.
Based on your work, what mass the RDA
2.
List the results obtained for the different cereals. Which
cereal contained the most iron per serving? If each cereal
claims to provide one RDA, how do you account for any
differences?
3.
A standard paper clip is often given as an example of an
object of mass 1 gram. How many bowls of the cereal you
tested would- you have to eat in order to consume 1 gram of
iron?
2