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Rennin is an enzyme found in the stomach of young mammals - HSC - SSCE Biology - Question 28 - 2014 - Paper 1
Question 28
Rennin is an enzyme found in the stomach of young mammals. Rennin curdles the milk drunk by the mammal and allows the milk solids to stay longer in the stomach to be... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:Rennin is an enzyme found in the stomach of young mammals - HSC - SSCE Biology - Question 28 - 2014 - Paper 1
Step 1
Account for the students' calculated average time for 300 bubbles of CO₂.
Answer
Before calculating the average time for 300 bubbles of CO₂, the outlier from Trial 4 (311 seconds) was removed, as it was significantly higher than other recorded times. This exclusion was necessary to ensure that the average reflects a more accurate representation of the time taken to curdle the milk under similar conditions.
Step 2
Explain the results of this experiment.
Answer
The results indicate a trend in enzyme activity related to the volume of CO₂: as the amount of CO₂ increases, the time taken for the milk to curdle generally decreases. This suggests that greater volumes of CO₂ enhance the activity of the rennin enzyme until a certain threshold.
However, after around 200 bubbles of CO₂, the increase in enzyme activity starts to level off, as seen in the trials for 250 and 300 bubbles. This indicates that the enzyme may be reaching its optimal conditions or pH level for activity, where further addition of CO₂ does not significantly enhance curdling time. The observed decrease in curdling time shows that higher CO₂ concentrations promote more efficient enzyme activity, but at a diminishing return after a certain point. Thus, while 250 and 300 bubbles yield similar curdling times, they demonstrate the plateauing effect on enzyme functionality as more CO₂ is introduced.