Topic Content:
- Experiment 1 – To determine the Moisture
- Experiment 2 – To Determine the Presence of Living Organisms in the Soil
- Experiment 3 – Confirmation that Soil Sample Contains Air
- Experiment 4 – Determine the Porosity and the Water-Retaining Capacity of Different Soil Types
- Experiment 5 – Determine Percentage of Organic MatterOrganic matter is anything that contains carbon compounds that were formed by living organisms. It covers a wide range of things like lawn clippings, leaves, stems, branches, moss, algae, lichens any... More
Experiment 1 – To Determine the Moisture:
Title of Experiment: To determine the moisture content of a sample of soil that is moist.
Materials required: Soil sample, weighing balance, evaporating dish, stirring rod, wire gauze, bunsen burner, tripod stand.
Method:
- Weigh the mass of the empty evaporating dish.
- Place a sample of soil into the dish and re-weigh.
- Heat the dish with the soil with a Bunsen burner for two to three hours.
- Stir the soil constantly with the glass rod to aid evaporation.
- At the end of the period, the dish with the soil is cooled in a desiccator and reweighed.

Results and Calculation:
Mass of empty evaporating dish = 30 g
Mass of dish + fresh soil = 45 g
Mass of fresh soil only [45 – 30] g = 15 g
Mass of
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