Problem

1
Problem
What is the effect of music on plant growth?
2
Target plant Mung beans
Date 30/7 - 16/8
3
Why did we decide to do this experiment?
4
Plants listen to music?

• Someone says that when plants are exposed to
  music, they grow faster. This becomes an
  interesting topic for many researchers. Our group
  has conducted an investigation to observe the
  effect of music on plant growth.

5
What did we do with the beans?
6
Process of the experiment
1) A large number of mung beans were germinated
in the first 3 days.
2) The best 40 beans were chosen and equally
divided in 4 groups.
7
3) The plants were exposed to different kind of
music every morning from 10am-11am.
4) Temperature and light intensity were recorded
every morning, afternoon and night.
thermometer
Light intensity meter
8
5) The planted were watered every other day.
15ml H2O
6) The height of the plants, width of the leaves
were measured every 3 days and average value
of each group was calculated.
9
Results
10
Average light intensity Morning 28846.00
Lux Afternoon 58893.33 Lux Night 0.00
Lux Average temperature Morning 28.40 ?
Afternoon 32.80 ? Night 27.67 ?
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25

• Trend of results

26

• Growth rates of the green beans exposed to pop,
  rock and classical music are higher than that
  which did not.

27

• The slopes of the curves are steepest within the
  first 3 days, which indicates that the growth
  rates of the beans were highest in the first 3
  days (3-6 of August) of the experiment.

28

• The curves are no longer linear after that, the
  growth rates of beans were declining throughout
  the experimental period.

29

• Explanation

30

• Before the emergence
• of the first pair of leaves

31

• the starch stored in the two cotyledons of the
  green beans supports germination and the
  subsequent rapid growth of the bean
• sound waves increase the motion of protoplasm of
  plant cells

32

• After the emergence
• of the first pair of leaves

33

• Music is electromagnetic sound waves, which
  causes the air particles to vibrate
• increases air pressure
• opens stomata on leaf surface more
  widely
• increases the uptake of oxygen and
  carbon dioxide

34
Limitation
Discussion

• Music is just a sound with changing frequencies
  that humans enjoy to listen. Whether better plant
  growth is due to the effect of exposure to music
  or just the effect of sound waves is not yet
  confirmed in this experiment, i.e., plant cannot
  distinguish between music and other sounds like
  noise.

35
Possible sources of error and ways to improve
Discussion

• 1) Intrinsic differences in growth rate, weight
  and height in each green bean may affect the
  accuracy in measuring these variables.

36
Possible sources of error and ways to improve

• Way to improve
• Using more samples, e.g., 50 of similar growing
  stage and length and taking average of each
  variables of each group can reduce this error.

37
Possible sources of error and ways to improve
Discussion

• 2) Systematic error in the poor equipment of
  measuring the height of plant, the width and
  length of leaves and the diameter of stem

38
Possible sources of error and ways to improve
Discussion

• Way to improve
• Using more accurate apparatus such as Vernier
  caliper and ruler with finer division can
  minimize the systematic error.

39
Possible sources of error and ways to improve
Discussion

• 3) The length of stem buried in soil when
  implanted to the flower pots has not been counted
  as a part of height of the plants and also
  variation between that length of each plant makes
  the result unreliable.

40
Possible sources of error and ways to improve
Discussion

• Way to improve
• To compare the percentage change of difference
  instead of only the change of differences.

41

• Further Investigations

42

• 1. Repeat by focusing on the different effects of
  the 3 kinds of music have on plant growth, with
  longer or shorter exposure time.

43

• 2.Try again with other plants, such as cactus,
  flowering plants
• or seeds, such as broad beans.

44

• 3.Try the experiment on plants at different
  growth stages.

45

• 4. Expose plants to other sounds, e.g. TV,
  radio.

46

• Conclusion
• Plants grow faster in exposure to music.

47

• Applications

48

• The knowledge can be applied in agriculture.
• increase the yield
• the problem of starvation and world
  hunger may be minimized in the future.