The+Effects+of+Nicotine+on+Plant+Growth


 * Katy and Nathaniel 3rd hour Kingdon/Kerwin**
 * Title**- The Effects of Nicotine on Plant Growth


 * Abstract-** We are performing this experiment to see if nicotine affects how plants grow. We think that with adding nicotine, the plants will grow taller than the plant without nicotine. We are going to give different amounts of nicotine to plants and see if it makes the plants grow taller.


 * Purpose**- Studies on nicotine as an isolated substance have found it actually may have a positive effect on plant growth. (Garden, 2012) We think that the plants will grow taller with the nicotine. Nicotine  was identified chemically in the nineteenth century. (elibrary, 2012) Nicotine is an addictive drug that is found mostly in cigarettes, cigars, and chewing snuff. We had the thought, what if the plant got addicted to the Nicotine? How would this effect the growth especially if it was taken away after the plant was addicted? Nicotine is composed of several chemicals that have strong effects on the human body together and can caused nicotine overdose. Is this also possible to happen to plants? Nicotine is composed of several chemicals that have strong effects on the human body together and can cause nicotine overdose . (Nicotine, 2012) Nicotine is an alkaloid produced in tobacco roots and transmitted to the leaves.(ehow,2012) It can also be used as a stimulant which we think will make the plant grow faster and taller. The experiment will take as long as it takes for the plants to grow so about two to four weeks. We will have four plants of the same type and plant them in the same soil and give them the same amount of water. When we give them fertilizer we will give one plant plain fertilizer with out any Nicotine making this our control plant. The other three plants will have different amounts of Nicotine in their fertilizer. We will let plants grow for three two to four weeks until one is out of the soil and then let them go longer and see which one gets taller. If we use nicotine in plant fertilizer, then the plant will grow taller and faster unlike other plants.


 * Hypothesis-** If we use more nicotine in the water, then the plant will grow taller.


 * Materials-** Plant seeds, soil, pots, nicotine, water, ruler, eyedropper, graduated cylinder.


 * Procedure-** To start this experiment, we will gather our supplies and set up the five pots. Making sure each pot will have the same variables (amount of soil and sunlight). After planting the ten radish seeds in each pot, we will give them the same amount of water. Then add the nicotine. One plant will have just water with no nicotine making this plant the control. The other plants will have nicotine mixed into the water with the amounts being different between the remaining plants. After giving each plant their water, we will keep track of their growth measuring each day and watering with the appropriate amounts of Nicotine to the plants every day. We will record the data in the chart below over an estimated time of one week after the plants have germinated. Keeping all variables the same beside the amount of nicotine in the plant's water will show whether or not plants benefit from nicotine dosage.


 * Data-**








 * Analysis-** After the radish plants were first planted, they had the same environmental conditions making sure that nothing besides how we watered them effected their growth. Over a period of seven days, we watered each of the five plants with a different amount of Nicotine in the water. As you can see from the graphs above, plants 2 and 4 have the best results from the Nicotine. Plant 1 (Control) had no Nicotine in it's water and didn't have the best results. Thus proving our hypothesis to be correct. What was odd about the data we collected is it wasn't a steady incline of height and growth with each plant meaning that even though plant 5 had one more drop of Nicotine than plant 4, plant 4 still was a more successful grow. According to our results, our hypothesis of "If we use more Nicotine in the water, the plant will grow taller" was correct but questionable. To fully understand and prove our hypothesis correct we would need to run one or two more of the same test to see if the results still stand.


 * Conclusion-** Our hypothesis of if we use more nicotine in the water, then the plant will grow taller was correct. If we do use more nicotine in the water solution, the plant will grow taller. Our data shows that at least one the plants that included nicotine in their water solution were taller than the control with no nicotine.


 * Limitations-** Some errors occurred as we did this experiment. One error was that we did not water the plants with the solution over the weekend or work a watering schedule around the weekend. One solution to this is to come to school on the weekends and water the plants. Another error we made was that the drops of nicotine might not have been the same size and amount of solution. One solution is to measure the amount of solution instead of how many drops. The last error we made was that the solution may not have been homogeneous by just swirling it around in the graduated cylinder. The solution would be to use a stirrer to mix the solution well. If we use more nicotine in the water, then the plant will grow taller.


 * Bibliography**


 * Garden Guides. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. .


 * Elibrary. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. 


 * Ehow. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2012. .


 * Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2012. .


 * Noodle Tools. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2012. .