Caleb Ryan – Virtual Northwest Arkansas Regional Science & Engineering Fair Winner University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR

Abstract:

As the world’s population continues to grow, it is important for the agriculture industry to discover ways to keep up with this growth. This project explores how magnetic fields enhance crop growth, particularly when it comes to soybeans. The hypothesis of this experiment was that when magnets are positioned around soybean plants, creating a magnetic field, the plants’ growth will be enhanced. There has been much previous research supporting this assertion with other plant species.

After five soybean seeds were placed in eight 5.5-inch tall pots, two groups were created, the control group and the variable group, each containing four pots. The control group was given no factors, while the variable group was given two disc magnets on either side of the pots and both were tested for 40 days, with data collected daily. At the end of the 40 days, the average height of the control group was 23.03cm while the variable group had an average height of 33.15 cm. This data, along with the rest of the data from the experiment, suggested that the hypothesis was supported since the soybean plants in the variable group (group with magnets) grew far faster than those in the control group (group without magnets).