 |
BLOND HAIR + POOL WATER = GREEN
HAIR |
 |
Recently Rya Webb competed in the 3rd grade science fair.
She won 2nd place at regions with this experiment. She has given us permission
to display her information on our web page. Congradulations Rya, were
proud of you. |
| Rya took a survey one day. She wanted to find out what made
your hair green after swimming in the pool. This is what people told her. |
|
Science Fair Poll |
|
Why does blond hair turn green
in the swimming pool? |
| Grandma |
Chlorine +Sun |
| Grandpa |
Sunlight |
| Bonnie |
Chlorine |
| Wade |
Chlorine |
| Jill |
Chlorine |
| Carol |
Chlorine |
| Terri |
Copper |
| Julia |
Blue+Yellow=green |
| Laura |
Chlorine |
| Brenda |
Chlorine |
| Sue |
Irish |
| Lita |
Chlorine |
| Machelle |
Chemicals |
| Bonne |
Chemicals+sun |
| Pool store |
Copper |
| Julia |
Algae |
Hypothesis
In some pools blond hair can turn green after swimming a long time but
my poll showed that most adults didn't really know why. After interviewing
the hair academy, pool managers, pool stores and the St. George Water
Purification plant, I decided that the most likely reason was algae, chlorine
or copper. |
 |
I polled over 25 people asking them what they
thought makes hair turn green in the pool water. Some people said it was
algae growing in the hair. They think that algae grows in all colors of
hair but it can only be seen in blonde hair because it is so light.
So I got some algae water from a pond at Quail Lake and put hair in it
but nothing happened. |
 |
 |
I added hypochlorite to regular water to make
a strong solution of chlorine. Using a test kit I checked the level of
chlorine and found out that it had over .7 milligrams per liter.
I put the water in the sun like the pool would be. Then I put blonde hair
in the chlorine and nothing ever happened. |
 |
 |
How does copper get into the swimming pool?
1st - People don't want algae to grow in their swimming pool so they put
chemicals in the pool to kill the slimy algae. Algicide is one of the
products that they can add. It has 7.1% copper as the active ingredient.
2nd - Another way that copper gets in the pool water is from the pool
heater. Chlorine is very corrosive on metals. The heater has copper coils
and the when the chlorine works on the coils, copper is released into
the water.
I took some copper algaecide from the pool store and put it into some
water. It only took a few seconds for the copper water to change a cotton
ball and the dogs blonde hair to green. |
 |
 |
| It took only a few seconds for the copper water to turn the hair green.
Even after several days in the algae and chlorine the hair did not turn
green. Most people don't really know why light colored hair turns green
in the pool water but my results show that it is because of the copper |
 |
| Get ideas for your science projects at All Science Fair Projects web site.
|
|
|
