Week 6 Post 4

We have added a thick layer of cotton to the prototype. 

When did you first test your prototype?

We built it on May 4th (Week 5) and on the same day tested it with a cup of soy sauce mixed with tap water.  The water came out clear, and we all successfully consumed it and are still alive today.  Later that week in class on Friday (May 8th, start of Week 6) was the first time we tested out the prototype with the three actual solutions we'll be filtering in the final presentation.

What is constituted as a "Week?"

Everytime we have class, it constitutes that start of a new "Week." We have this class on Fridays so it can get confusing.  For example, although a given Tuesday may be the second week of a term, it is still considered "Week 1" of this project until class later that week on Friday, which sets "Week 2" of the project in motion.  And the next Friday starts Week 3 of the project, and so on.

Filtering out Nile Red Dye

This was the most difficult trial our prototype had to pass.

Week 6 Post 3

We believe the prototype can be improved by ensuring that the filter is fully dry for the next test (it was still wet from testing earlier in the week) and by adding a few more layers of cotton and air filter to the tangible, since it appeared that the layers of air filter were the best at catching the Nile red dye.

Week 6 Post 2

In the Copper sulfate trial, the water came into the cup clear and took 45 seconds to do so.

In the Nile red dye trial, the the water was clear for a while, but then some dye came through at the very end, and turned the clear water a very light pink.  This took 35 seconds.

In the micro bead trial,  no micro beads came through, however, some of the Nile red dye from the previous trial came through into the water and turned it magenta.  This third trial took 24 seconds.



Over all the Copper sulfate and the micro bead trials were successful while the Nile Red was not.  The filter was very quick compared to others, which was unintended but pleasant.

Week 6 Post 1

Today, we are testing the prototype.  We must filter out copper solution, Nile red dye,  and microbeads, and the water must come out through the filter clean and clear.

Week 5 Post 1

Today we are going to build the filter.  There is an upside down 1.89 L Gatorade bottle.  We have a layer of gravel on the bottom, above that is a layer of cotton (punched into the bottle),  then more gravel, then more cotton, as seen below. We still have to add some layers.  Some concerns we have water dripping through the sides past the materials, but we hope this can be prevented by pressing the materials in enough with heavy material on the top of the filter (perhaps a ton of gravel).  We decided to omit the lent filter because if it filtered out anything, it'd be metal flakes and we believe that those would fit through the holes in the lent filter.

We are considering using the lent filter for the bottom of the filter instead of the mesh wiring.  This made the water flow a lot faster.  When we filtered, the water came out dirtier than it was when it first came through.  We assume this is because the gravel is still slightly dirty even after we cleaned it.  We kept running water through until it was clear. We all drank the filtered tap water.

We used Dareus' parts per million reader to see the difference between the tap water and the filter water.  Originally it was coming out to be more ppm than the tap water and we assume that it's because the filter was cleaning itself.  The gravel was still slightly dirty even after we'd cleaned it with soap and water.