David's Simple Apple Lab

For school this week, David had to do a Science lab. The purpose of the lab was to see if a solution of lemon juice and water would slow the chemical process that causes apples to brown when exposed to oxygen.

If you know David, then you know that he has a very intelligent, curious mind. The first attempt at this lab consisted of slicing up an apple and covering each individual slice with a variety of things: lemon juice, water, crushed vitamin C, orange juice, and spit. (Yes, spit. His spit. Ew.) Then he found out that his teacher wanted the lab limited to just water and a lemon juice & water solution. But, we learned from this experiment that lemon juice works best followed closely by orange juice. Spit ... not at all.

So, he cut an apple in half and soaked one side in water and the other side in the lemon juice/water solution. "Doesn't the chemical change require oxygen?" I asked several hours into the experiment. Ugh. But we learned from this experiment that apples when soaked in a lemon/water solution starts to become apple mush in just a few short hours.


He started all over. By this point he had used my cheap apples and so he moved on to my deliciously sweet and crisp Honey Crisp Apples. $2.99 a pound apples. He cut the apple in half. Dipped one side in water. Dipped the other side in a lemon juice & water solution. Waited for 6 hours. Guess what we learned? Honey Crisp Apples don't really brown.