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Designing a test for the magnetic coasters...

Tez

Graduate Poster
Tez
Joined
Nov 29, 2001
Messages
1,104
Ok folks, I have received the magnetic coasters for testing, courtesy of Roger Coghill.

The product was offered for sale from Cogreslabs' site, with the following advertisement
About the size of a CD, this powerful coaster has powerful magnets hidden within an attractive wipe clean plastic shell. Use it to 'magnetise' drinking water, or even improve the taste of red wine (!) Every kitchen should have at least one.
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I maintain that there will be no discernible difference between magnetized water/wine etc and the un-magnetized variety. If I find out that I am wrong on the basis of the tests I'll perform this week, then I'll fork over 500 pounds to be given to the charity of Roger's choice. [I will then be offering two of the coasters for sale to JREF members for the very special price of 250 pounds each ) ]

So, in what is surely in line with the JREF mission, I'm starting this thread so that you can give me ideas on constructing a simple double-blind test.

There are two half-cream, half-brown coasters, and one smaller "CD like" coaster.

The instructions that came with the cream/brown coasters are

Simply place your glass or jug of water to be magnetised on your AMGNO-COASTER, with the cream side upwards. Your powerful magnetic coaster will make your water healthier and fresher-tasting after approx. 20 minutes.
Always chill bottled water before treatment and not after.
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The instructions for the smaller coaster, courtesy of Norstar Biomagnetics, are

The Norstar Magnetic Coaster

For general Health and well-being
Magnetised water is carried through the body more effectively than regular water. It has a lower surface tension and is therefore taken up more readily by the cells.
We recommend magnetised water for many skin and digestive disorders and to improve general health and skin.

How to magnetise your water
Simply place your glass or jug on top of the coaster and leave for an hour - your water is now magnetised!
Your glass or jug may be left on the coaster indefinitely.
Best to drink magnetised water directly fro the coaster or from the refrigerator - if you have placed the coaster in there.
Drink the water within a day of magnetisation.

NORTH POLE WATER Calming and Relaxing
Used for most conditions. Place container on the coaster with the North Pole facing towards the jug/bottle.

SOUTH POLE WATER For Stimulation and Energy
Place the container on the coaster with the South Pole facing upwards.

Handy tip Ripen tomatoes, strawberries or any fruit by placing them on the south pole of the coaster.
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You can see the three coasters in the pictures below. Note that the cream/brown ones are quite thick.

One thing to bear in mind is that I dont really care if the liquid tastes better or worse, I believe there will simply be no difference. Thus a test which asks for "picking the odd man out" is better than a "which tastes better" kind of thing.

I intend to test water and wine, and possibly beer since I have the third coaster. And who can pass up an excuse for a beer at work?

Finally, as far as doing the test goes, I'd like to invite anyone in the London area to come by and help me with it. Otherwise I'll have to "volunteer" some students into it. After we do the test, we can head to the Queens Arms, where I promise the beer tastes good regardless of its level of magnetisation.

coasters002.jpg

coasters003.jpg

coasters004.jpg
 
Tez said:


I maintain that there will be no discernible difference between magnetized water/wine etc and the un-magnetized variety. If I find out that I am wrong on the basis of the tests I'll perform this week, then I'll fork over 500 pounds to be given to the charity of Roger's choice. [I will then be offering two of the coasters for sale to JREF members for the very special price of 250 pounds each ) ]

Click to expand...

I recommend a "triangle test" as a test methodology. Get three identical bottles of water, chill them identically, take the out of the fridge, open them, and "magnetize" one. Pour three samples into three identical labelled glasses (cheap plastic is probably sufficient), then have the subjects determine which of the three "tastes different."

Probably a good idea to have water biscuits or something available as a palate cleanser.

Obviously, you need to do the pouring and labelling in a different area from where the people are being served, and you want a confederate to serve and tabulate the results.

Expected results are that 1/3 (0.3333) of the participants would correctly identify the magnetized water by chance; anything "significantly" better than 1/3 is evidence that Coghill is onto something. I can crunch some numbers quickly if you want cookbook stats.
 
Re: Re: Designing a test for the magnetic coasters...

drkitten said:

Obviously, you need to do the pouring and labelling in a different area from where the people are being served, and you want a confederate to serve and tabulate the results.
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To emoersise no one who know which is which should be in the room during testing.
 
Re: Re: Re: Designing a test for the magnetic coasters...

geni said:


To emoersise no one who know which is which should be in the room during testing.
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Was the word you were looking for "emphasise"?

But, yes, you are absolutely correct. You need to label/pour the drinks, THEN have your confederate walk in to the already labelled drinks to distribute them, so that s/he has no idea whether the blue label is the magnetized water or not.

You might also want to have a few people around just to serve as procedural witnesses.

I look forward to seeing the results.
 
For the taste test, I recommend using wine.

Finding volunteers will be much easier. As a matter of fact... where are you at exactly?

Edited to add: dang... London, I see. That's not very convenient.
 
Good suggestions already.

I'm at Imperial College, London, which is in South Kensington, opposite the Royal Albert Hall (about a 5 min walk from Gloucester Road tube station).
 
I would also suggest randomizing the position/order/lable for which target water/wine is in. Also make sure your non-mag water/wine is kept far enough away as to not accidently effect the samples.

JPK
 
And another quantifiable claim in the tips section.

Handy tip Ripen tomatoes, strawberries or any fruit by placing them on the south pole of the coaster.
Click to expand...

This should be an easy claim to test in a non subjective way.

Buy a bunch of underripe bananas, split the bunch. Place half on the coaster, and half on the counter near by. Which group ripen faster. (Would be even better with two coaster, so you could do a north and south pole comparision against the plain ol' counter top.) Repeat several times.

You could get into some subjectivity about which bananas ripened fastest.... but, if the tip is really worth much, the effect would necessarily be pretty pronounced. In other words, if it isn't quite noticable which ripen faster, might as just leave them on the counter.
 
Setting a protocol for wine is not easy. I have been thinking about that on Tez's request for a couple of days now.

The product claims that the coaster can make your wine taste better. It's difficult to define what constitutes a better taste in a beverage like wine. It's very subjective. The nature of wine requires more time Tez.

I would suggest to use two bottles of wine not more than one year old each and leave the one bottle open for one week and then perform a blind test in the way wine experts do( details can be provided upon request).

Tez there is a code you can find in the help forum to adjust the size of the photos to the size of the window.Or ask a mod to do it. Lux knows. Congreslad must be notified about this thread.
 
Anything you use to cleanse the palate might affect the taste of the subsequent liquids, so you have to make sure the three glasses are consumed in random order. If you label them 1, 2, and 3, someone could place them in front of the subject in random order and ask that they be consumed from left to right.

You might want to use distilled water as the palate cleanser.

Make sure that the coasters do not leave anything on the bottom of the glasses, including any odor. If they are magnetic, you could place a piece of paper on top, then the glass. Shouldn't make any difference.

The person who carries the glasses out to the subjects should not know which is which, only that s/he is to place them in a certain order from left to right.

I would use plastic cups and discard them after every trial.

~~ Paul
 
Re: Re: Designing a test for the magnetic coasters...

drkitten said:


I recommend a "triangle test" as a test methodology. Get three identical bottles of water, chill them identically, take the out of the fridge, open them, and "magnetize" one. Pour three samples into three identical labelled glasses (cheap plastic is probably sufficient), then have the subjects determine which of the three "tastes different."
Click to expand...
I suggest refining this by starting by putting the water and the magnet coaster in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Then, when ready to magnetize, put the magnet under one of the water bottles, and do the magnetization inside the fridge. The intent is to minimize any temperature differential that may occur either due to air currents, different heat conduction rates of the magnet vs table top, etc.

Finally, measure the water temperature with a calibrated thermocouple prior to serving to ensure that all 3 samples are within close tolerances to each other.

Volume of the 3 samples should be exactly the same, partly to minimize difference in temp gradients, partly to avoid providing some "difference" that the test subject unconsciously cues on.

Randomize which glass has the magnetized water. I.e., if labelled A,B,C make sure the magnetized water is evenly distributed among the three. Always serve in the same order, ABC, and order glasses the same way, ABC, left to right.

Test may be easier if all liquids are served at room temp. This will simplify serving all 3 beverages at identical temp.
 
Cleopatra said:
Setting a protocol for wine is not easy. I have been thinking about that on Tez's request for a couple of days now.

The product claims that the coaster can make your wine taste better. It's difficult to define what constitutes a better taste in a beverage like wine. It's very subjective. The nature of wine requires more time Tez.
Click to expand...

I think the triangle test I proposed above would suffice to show that magnetized wine tastes (or does not taste) "different," which would be enough for a start. As you point out, "better" is extremely subjective --- but if there's no detectable difference in taste, it certainly can't "taste better."
 
Cleopatra said:
Setting a protocol for wine is not easy. I have been thinking about that on Tez's request for a couple of days now.

The product claims that the coaster can make your wine taste better. It's difficult to define what constitutes a better taste in a beverage like wine. It's very subjective. The nature of wine requires more time Tez.

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Tasting "better" would be tough. Tasting differant is another story. I like the idea of the three samples. Randomize between 1 mag and 2 unmag and visa versa. I also would suggest that the three samples be poured from the same bottle and magnitize it in the glass. Wine can be differant from bottle to bottle depending on how it's handled.

JPK

drkitten beat me to the punch :)
 
JPK said:


Tasting "better" would be tough. Tasting differant is another story. I like the idea of the three samples. Randomize between 1 mag and 2 unmag and visa versa. I also would suggest that the three samples be poured from the same bottle and magnitize it in the glass. Wine can be differant from bottle to bottle depending on how it's handled.
Click to expand...

All very good suggestions.
 
JPK said:
Tasting "better" would be tough. Tasting differant is another story. I like the idea of the three samples. Randomize between 1 mag and 2 unmag and visa versa. I also would suggest that the three samples be poured from the same bottle and magnitize it in the glass. Wine can be differant from bottle to bottle depending on how it's handled.

JPK
Click to expand...


Well let's be realistic here. Let's see what the product promises and how we can check if it can do what it promises indeed.

Use it to 'magnetise' drinking water, or even improve the taste of red wine (!)
Click to expand...
http://www.galonja.co.uk/galonja_sh...&g_u_nam=&g_tim=&pid=98&v_det=1&full=1&c_id=0

Now we are talking for a medium red table wine. There is nothing to improve in a fine Merlot :)

This is why I suggested to use two bottles of the same common red wine, leave the one open for a week . Make four samples, two of each bottle and magnetize the two one from each bottle.

As for Paul's concerns the test is brief but in order to keep the protocol the tester should spit the sip he is testing and after each sample must eat a piece of bread.

Claus Tez told me in private that he will write the article, I have evidence. :p
 
Cleopatra said:



This is why I suggested to use two bottles of the same common red wine, leave the one open for a week . Make four samples, two of each bottle and magnetize the two one from each bottle.

Click to expand...

I would be suprised if anything could improve the taste or a bottle of red wine that has been left open for a week. I would also be suprised to fine anything left in a bottle that has been opened for an hour or so. At least at my house :)

JPK
 
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