DiscussionThe effectiveness of enzymes depends on a number of factors, such as temperature, pH, and concentration of the enzyme, to name a few some. This experiment was conducted to show the effects of different pH levels on the activity of the catalase enzyme, the data obtained in this experiment supports the initial hypothesis of the experiment which states that the catalase enzyme will function optimally at a pH of 7 and that its effectiveness will decrease as the pH of the solutions moves away from 7. This is true because in the experiment, the test tube containing the distilled water which has a pH of 7 produced the largest amount of foam among the four test tubes. The efficiency of the reaction can be determined by the amount of foam (foam = oxygen, which is the result of the hydrogen peroxide molecule breaking down into water and oxygen) produced, or by the level of fizzing that occurs when hydrogen peroxide is added. The pH of a solution in which an enzyme must function is very important because if the pH proves too low or too high, the enzyme will denature, rendering it unable to function. However, the pH of a solution can be far from pH. neutral level of 7 but the enzyme might not completely denature meaning the catalase enzyme would not completely lose its catalytic capacity whereas the shame of a fully denatured enzyme will have been completely impaired preventing the site active and the substrate to fit together as they are. supposed to do it. In some reactions the active site and the enzyme substrate are still able to fit together, meaning the reaction will continue to take place but at a very slow rate, this appears to be the case in one of the test tubes at course of the experience. The foam produced during the reaction...... middle of paper ......f denaturing the enzyme, thus rendering it incapable of functioning because its active site had been remodeled into a form that did not match the substrate, to allow them to fit together. Denaturation of the enzyme took place in test tube B after 7 ½ minutes. The rest of the reactions in the other test tubes continued to react. All reactions retained a very opaque color and only when hydrogen peroxide was added to the solution did the contents of the test tube lighten slightly and become more transparent. The transparency of the solutions in the test tubes at the end of the experiment was due to water produced by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide which forms water (H2O) and oxygen (O2). Water dilutes solutions, making them more transparent. These results confirm my hypothesis.