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Fermentation: Anaerobic Breakdown Of Carbohydrates

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Fermentation is the anaerobic breakdown of carbohydrates, such as glucose, in both animals and food. This process releases carbon dioxide gas from the carbohydrate that is being degraded. Fermentation is important to animals and humans because it allows chemical energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate to be generated without the presence of oxygen. It is also crucial in the creation of many foods, such as wine and yogurt (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015). Yeast is a needed input for the creation of alcohol by fermentation because it contains enzymes that breakdown carbohydrates ("Yeast," n.d.). This experiment can help determine which carbohydrates can produce the fastest rate of fermentation to create these alcoholic beverages …show more content…

Fermentation occurs in the presence of carbohydrates, and the experiment was conducted to determine which carbohydrate, either glucose, fructose, sucrose, sucralose, or starch, produces the most carbon dioxide gas as a byproduct of fermentation. Respirometers are devices that measure the rate of aerobic or anaerobic respiration of organisms or foods through the measurement of certain gasses, such as carbon dioxide ("Respirometers Information," n.d.). Respirometers show the rate of anaerobic respiration, such as fermentation, through the measurement of the production of carbon dioxide …show more content…

Experiments were designed to determine how each carbohydrate would affect the process of fermentation. Because fermentation is used in the production of alcoholic beverages and yogurt, this experiment can help determine which carbohydrates yield the fastest rate of fermentation to create these alcoholic beverages or yogurts quicker. This experiment could also help humans determine which carbohydrates to ingest due to their ability to be easily broken down because humans use fermentation to acquire energy. The hypothesis that fermentation has a higher rate of reaction when exposed to simpler carbohydrates was tested. More specific hypotheses were tested as well. The first hypothesis was that the respirometer containing water would not undergo fermentation due to a lack of carbohydrates. The second was that the respirometer containing diet cranberry juice would not easily partake in fermentation because of the artificial sugar sucralose that is present. The third hypothesis was that the respirometer containing carrot juice would take much longer to undergo fermentation in comparison to monosaccharides because of the complex carbohydrates sucrose and starch present. The last hypothesis was that the respirometer containing grape juice would have a higher rate of fermentation than the other respirometers because of the simplicity of the

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