The Effects of Household Solutions on Condensation in Swim Goggles

Grade:

10

Teacher:

Elyse Wexler

In swimming, goggles fog frequently, inhibiting visibility and creating annoying challenges for swimmers. This fog is caused by condensation in the lenses when warm humid air on the inside meets the surface of the lens. While there sometimes is an antifog coating pre-applied to the goggles, it is often ineffective and wears down easily. There is no universally agreed upon way to combat this problem. In this project, different household antifog coatings were evaluated to determine which is the best at reducing the effects of condensation. Two different experiments were conducted to determine which of the four different coatings was the best, one in kitchen and one in the pool. The kitchen experiment included putting a light meter inside a box of ice with a goggle lens cut into the side. Light was measured every 30 seconds. Dish soap was the most effective at reducing fogging during this experiment. The light meter detected 4100 lux for dish soap during the second attempt, the highest of that data set. There were significant differences in results between Attempt 1 and Attempt 2, due to the placement of the light meter inside the box causing the Tyndall Effect to come into play. For the swimming experiment, a subject executed a warmup and then was asked to determine how many shapes at different opacities were visible on a sheet of paper. For this experiment, dish soap was also the best performing coating with its only hinderance in the first attempt being on the lines paper where the subject saw four out of five. This research can be applied to life in and out of the pool, like with jobs that use eyewear and need good visibility.

Project presentation

Lab journal excerpts

Research paper