SCIENCE FAIR PERMANENT SHARPIE? CATEGORY: SOLUTIONS BY NATALIE BRIGGS

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM How does washing a Sharpie mark with different kinds of common household cleaning solutions (bleach and detergent) effect how well the Sharpie comes out?

PROJECT OVERVIEW For my project I made Sharpie marks on 12 pieces of cloth and washed them all in different cleaning liquids (water, bleach, and detergent) and then I dried them.

RESEARCH  Discover how permanent Sharpie markers are  Find out how well detergent removes stains  Test to see how well bleach actually whitens

VARIABLES Independent Variable: Kinds of Cleaning liquids used Dependent Variable: How well the Sharpie comes out Operational definition: gray scale (1-6) Constants: Type of Sharpie, color of Sharpie, type of cloth, color of cloth, size of cloth, size of Sharpie mark, amount of cleaning material (mL), washing machine, setting, time washed, types of cleaning liquid Control Group: Cloth washed with water

HYPOTHESIS If Sharpie is washed with detergent then it will come out more (based on the gray scale) then with just water because detergent is made to get stains out.

MATERIALS  Cloth (cotton) 12  Sharpie (black, fine point)  Detergent (59 mL)  Bleach (59 mL)  Washing Machine  Water  Gray scale (1-6 1=most change 6= no change)  Ruler  Scissors  Measuring cup (metric)

1.Get white fabric (cotton) 2.Cut fabric so that each piece is 15.3 cm by 15.3 cm 3.Get fine point black sharpie 4.Draw square on fabric that is 3 cm by 5 cm and label for test 5.Fill washing machine with 4 pieces of fabric and wash for 40 min. in water (control) 6.Put fabric in dryer for 36 min. 7.Check mark against gray scale 8.Record data in graph 9.Fill washing machine with 59 mL of detergent and 4 more pieces of fabric 10.Wash for 40 min 11.Put fabric in dryer for 36 min 12.Check marks against gray scale 13.Record data in graph 14.Fill washing machine with 59 mL of bleach and 4 more pieces of fabric 15. Wash for 40 min. 16. Put fabric in dryer for 36 min. 17. Check marks against gray scale 18. Record data in graph PROCEDURE

PHOTOS Water (control group) after wash Detergent test after wash Bleach test after wash

OBSERVATIONS  None of the liquids had any significant effects on the Sharpie  Bleach only made the Sharpie go away by about 1 degree on the gray scale  Detergent had the same effect on the Sharpie as the bleach did, reducing the stain by about 1 degree on the gray scale  Drying the fabric had no effect on reducing the Sharpie stain on the gray scale

CONCLUSION My hypothesis was correct because detergent got rid of the Sharpie better than just water. I also found out that bleach can be used to get rid of Sharpie stains and it works as well as the detergent. If Sharpie gets on your clothes I would recommend using bleach or detergent to get rid of it, based on my tests.

POSSIBLE ERRORS  Variations of tone in the Sharpie marks  Measurements (mL or cm) could have been slightly off  Size and placement of Sharpie mark  Temperature of water could have been different in the different loads

APPLICATIONS One of the ways this experiment could provide better results could be to wash the fabric more than once and with more cleaning liquid. I would also recommend using a wider selection of detergent or bleach so that possibly more amount of Sharpie would come out. In everyday life I would recommend keeping a wide selection of detergents and bleach available to be used in different situations.

WORKS CITED No works cited