I've just finished my project. To read about what happened, click here.
Today we experimented with magnesium, citric acid, and water to create hydrogen. The purpose of this lab was to develop a better understanding of atoms and their structure. Atoms, in the simplest definition, are the smallest unit of an element. They are made up of three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. After learning about the basic structure of an atom, we learned about the periodic table. The periodic table helps to learn how many electrons, protons, neutrons, and the atomic mass in each element. I learned that the number of electrons and protons is the atomic number and the amount of neutrons is the atomic mass minus the amount of protons. After becoming more educated about elements, my group and I were reading to start the experiment. For this lab, we were given strips of magnesium, a beaker of citric acid, a beaker of water, a small balloon, and a volumetric flask to hold the chemicals. My group and I first rolled the magnesium strips, dropped it into the flask and then added citric acid. Then one person poured the water into the flask and another quickly put the balloon over the opening of the flask. Over time, the magnesium started to react with the citric acid and created a gas that started to fill the balloon. This gas was hydrogen. The flask even started to warm up to hot temperatures. When the balloon was filled with enough hydrogen, we took the balloon, tied off the end of it, and cut close to the knot. As I was holding the balloon, it was noticeably light and easy to let go of. When releasing the balloon, it would float to the ceiling fairly quickly. Hydrogen acts like helium, but weighs lighter. After playing with the balloon for a while, we set the balloon on fire. For safety precautions, we tied the balloon to a yard stick with a piece of tape and used candles as the source of fire. When the balloon made contact with the fire, it instantly created a mini fire explosion. The fire explosion was the hydrogen reacting to the flames and that's why the fire "clouds" appeared. Since hydrogen is highly reactive to fire, that's why it didn't take much to create an explosion. I really enjoyed this lab. It was a great way to learn more about atom structure and how certain elements can create other elements. I didn't really understand when my chemistry teacher told us that air actually has a weight until I played with the hydrogen and compared it to balloons filled with helium. For this lab, I voluntarily went to work with a group outside of my immediate friend group and had a good time. Collaborating and successfully completing this lab with them was very rewarding.
Below is a scanned image of the SI System Conversion Worksheet I completed. For this worksheet, I needed to convert different types of units to other types of units. I practiced these types of problems very often last year in my Physics class, so I didn't have too hard of a time for this. But I did have to look back at my notes to remember the conversion process and ask my peers for help on certain units I've never seen before. Overall, I had fun completing these problems and wouldn't mind practicing this more.
My group has just finished investigating the truthiness of ghosts. To watch the video, click here.
In chemistry, we experimented with dry ice. Before starting, we learned about phases of matter and how it changes when the pressure or temperature changes. Like liquid to solid, solid to gas, gas to liquid, and vice versa. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide and can be melted to become carbon dioxide gas again. For our lab we attempted to answer: "What is going on at a molecular level when dry ice sublimate?" We first used the dry ice by placing it in water. When placing the dry ice in room temperature liquid, it released the carbon dioxide into the air. Then we added dish soap into the water and this created bubbles filled with carbon dioxide. When we popped the bubbles, the carbon dioxide was released and soap residue was left on our hands and tables. You can see this reaction in the video below. We also filled a ballon with a 2 cm dry ice cube and waited for the gas to fill the space. Although the dry ice was very little, it still managed to fill our balloon to 18 cm in the end. This means our volume of the balloon was 3053.63 cm3. I also calculated the volume of the dry ice was 33.51 cm3. The ratio is 1:91.12. Meaning that when the carbon dioxide is a solid, like the dry ice, the molecules within are very close together. And when the solid turns into a gas, the molecules grow 91.12 times larger and expand. This was very interesting to learn and helped me understand how and why gases fill the space of the container they are in.
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AuthorLili's 2015 Chemistry Blog Archives
May 2015
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