Soil Measurements

We were assigned to measure different kinds of soil, and measure how much water they lose. My group measured compost soil, garden soil, and one cup where both are mixed together. We started off by placing different masses of soil inside a coffee filter placed in the cylinder, made so the water goes right through it inside a cup placed underneath. We made sure to always add the same amount- 40 ml, and to measure the same time- 3 minutes.

Here are the results:

	Compost Soil	Gardening Soil	50/50 Soil
Mass	101,3g-2,7g (mass of the cup)= 98.6g	70,8g-2,7g= 68.1g	89,9g-2,7g=87.2g
How much water comes out in three minutes	20 ml	8 ml	15 ml

Since the masses we used differ from one another, I decided to measure how much milliliters per gram the soil loses the certain mass of water, and in that way, I would end up with fair calculations. 

These are the results I got:

	Compost Soil	Gardening Soil	50/50 Soil
The final mass of water lost/starting mass of soil	20ml/98.6g= 0,203 ml/g	68.1g/8ml= 0,117ml/g	87.2g/15ml= 0,171ml/g

The results above prove that the compost soil is the worst out of three for plants, as it loses the most amount of water per one gram. The calculation for the mixed soil is in the middle, as it contains estimated 50% of garden soil. The results for gardening soil are the best, and show that the soil retains the most amount of water out of these three soil samples.