Gas Law Analysis

The purpose of the labs was to determine how pressure, temperature, and volume were related in a gas.

Make your learning a conversation with others!  You have watched demonstrations, read txt, practiced gas law equations, and done some labs. Now you must take all this learning and write an analysis, a conversation of what you learned. This analysis must be posted on your chemistry blog.

Write your analysis as a discussion or a story. Please do NOT write your analysis as a list of answered questions, even though you have been given a list of questions.  You will be assessed on 1) knowledge of the subject material; 2) describing the material in your own words and in an interesting manner; and 3) personal contribution to the topic.

Labs you have done related to the gas laws are:

Hot Balloon:  An Erlenmyer flask with approximately 50 mL of water in it and a balloon secured on top is heated, and the circumference of the balloon is measured before and after heating the water.

Cartesian Diver: A 2-liter soda bottle is filled with water and a medicine dropper placed inside. After being capped, the bottle is squeezed.

Soda Can Crush:  A soda can with a small amount of water in the bottom was heated on a hot plate, and then flipped with tongs into ice water.

Pressurized Balloon:  A 2-liter soda bottle that has a balloon inside was pressurized.

Pressure and a Bag:  Two large jars with plastic bags taped over the mouths, one inside and the other outside.

Demonstrations you have seen related to the gas laws include the Bell jar vacuum. Individually, the following were exposed to a vacuum under the bell jar:  glass of water, balloon, marshmallow, shaving cream, empty water bottle.  You also saw the press of air against an evacuated metal sphere with handles.

Need help with definitions?  WyzAnt has a decent tutorial here.

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Stoichiometry Help

Interactive Practice with stoichiometry problems:

• Stoichiometry Review
• Interactive Mole-Mole and Mass-Mass Stoichiometry Tutorial
• Using Balanced Chemical Equations
• Stoichiometry Online Help
• Stoichiometry and Equations
• Stoichiometry Tutorials: Reaction Stoichiometry
• Tutorials and Problem Sets
• Review Game List

“That which you persist in doing becomes easy to do – not that the nature of the thing has changed, but your power and ability to do has increased.” — H.J. Grant

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Demonstrate Understanding of Chemical Reactions

Goal: Be able to use the law of conservation of mass to write balanced chemical equations, identify the basic types of chemical reactions, and predict the possible products from a given set of reactants.

You must demonstrate your achievement of this goal.  In a blog post, (1) explain how to balance an equation and why it is important, and (2) describe different labs you did, what type of reaction it was, and provide a balanced reaction for each.  You have done synthesis, decomposition, single-replacement, and double-displacement labs.

You must also (3) describe how to predict the possible products that will occur from a given set of reactants, and (4) demonstrate your ability to predict reaction products.

As of the first week of March, chemistry students have conducted the below list of chemistry labs. Use this list to support your evidence of attainment of the above goal.

1. Baking Soda to Salt Lab
2. Limiting Reactants Lab
3. Chemical Reactions Webquest
4. Three Types of Chemical Reactions
5. Reactivity of Metals
6. Hydrate Lab
7. Molecules of Candle Burned
8. Molecules of Chalk In Your Name
9. Covalent or Ionic Bonding Lab
10. Halides Lab
11. Periodic Trends
12. Ionic vs Covalent
13. Half life of Candium
14. Isotopes of Vegium Lab
15. Rutherford Lab
16. Law of Conservation of Mass
17. The quality of Laboratory Measurements
18. Measuring Stuff: Tools and Skills
19. Density Problems
20. Lab Skills Lab
21. Observations Lab

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How Can Each Snowflake Be Unique?

This past month chemistry students have been learning how to convert between grams, molecules, and moles, so each day the bell-ringer/do-now/QOD assignment was a calculation of molecules of something familiar: chalk, candle wax burned, nicotine, aluminum foil, etc. I believe that each day’s practice helped solidify their understanding of the concept. So one day I asked how many molecules in a snow flake. Since we had to start with a mass, and I did not have time to determine the mass of a single snowflake, I turned to the internet and found Archimedes Notebook: How much does a snowflake weigh?  Thus, I gave the students the following information

Most snowflakes weigh from 0.001 to 0.003 grams, with a heavy snowflake coming in at 0.02 grams. Choose a mass within that range and calculate the number of molecules of water in the snowflake.

Thus, different students came up with different numbers of molecules, giving us a range of data.  Note:

The largest snowflake ever seen was 8 by 12 inches and was reported to have fallen in Bratsk, Siberia in 1971.

Most students elected to use the average of the lower two numbers, and calculated as follows:

That is a lot of molecules. Adding or subtracting just one molecule of water would result in a unique snowflake. And considering that water is a polar molecule, the hydrogen bonding arrangement possibilities is mind boggling.

Then we have to consider factors that affect how a snowflake develops. NOAA gives this simplified explanation, which still is not the entire story:

A snowflake begins to form when an extremely cold water droplet freezes onto a pollen or dust particle in the sky. This creates an ice crystal. As the ice crystal falls to the ground, water vapor freezes onto the primary crystal, building new crystals – the six arms of the snowflake.

…The intricate shape of a single arm of the snowflake is determined by the atmospheric conditions experienced by entire ice crystal as it falls. A crystal might begin to grow arms in one manner, and then minutes or even seconds later, slight changes in the surrounding temperature or humidity causes the crystal to grow in another way.  ~ NOAA

From snowcrystals.com we get a bit more information:

Snowflake Morphology

We see that thin plates and stars grow around -2 C (28 F), while columns and slender needles appear near -5 C (23 F). Plates and stars again form near -15 C (5 F), and a combination of plates and columns are made around -30 C (-22 F).  Furthermore, we see from the diagram that snow crystals tend to form simpler shapes when the humidity (supersaturation) is low, while more complex shapes at higher humidities. The most extreme shapes — long needles around -5 C and large, thin plates around -15 C — form when the humidity is especially high.

PBS tried to get a definitive answer to this question “So is it really true that no two snowflakes are alike?” from physicists Kenneth Libbrecht, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology and avid snowflake photographer, and John Hallett, director of the Ice Physics Laboratory at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev., and got the following response:

“It’s like shuffling a deck and getting the exact same shuffle for 52 cards,” Libbrecht said. “You could shuffle every second for the entire life of the universe, and you wouldn’t come close to getting two of the same.”

So, there you have it. While not impossible, it is highly unlikely given that there are a trillion, trillion, trillion (a 1 with 36 zeros!) different types of snowflakes.

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How Many Molecules of Chalk?

A Chemistry “Do Now”

How much chalk does it take to write your name?

Figure this out!

Step 1. Mass a piece of chalk.

Step 2. Use this chalk to write your name on the board.

Step 3. Remass the chalk.

Step 4. Convert grams to moles, using the grams of chalk used.

Hint: Chalk is calcium carbonate, CaCO3

Step 5. Convert moles to molecules.

Step 6. Write and communicate everything you did and discovered in a visual.

Click on the image!

 

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Chemistry Portfolios Online

Using 21st Century Tools

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” ~ Charles Darwin

Students are blogging for their portfolio in chemistry class:

~ Gwen   ~   David   ~    Olivia   ~   Jess   ~   Skylar    ~   Corey   ~   Sam   ~   Cody   ~   Kassidy   ~   Nicolette   ~   Ben   ~   Krystal   ~   Lauren   ~   Mike   ~   Caitlin   ~   Blaine   ~   Molly   ~   Mariah   ~   Maddie   ~   Devan   ~   Elise   ~   Kade   ~   Rachel D.   ~   Isabella   ~   Alena   ~   Cam   ~   Haley   ~   LeeAnne   ~   Taressa   ~   Joe   ~   Dakota   ~   Madison   ~   Alex   ~   Kevin   ~   Devin   ~   Caroline   ~   Hannah   ~   Michaela   ~   June   ~   Megan   ~   Rachel S   ~   

To see why, read Using A Blog As A Portfolio.

                                       

Technology… is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.  ~C.P. SNOW, New York Times, 15 March 1971.

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Students Tell Of The Scientist Within

 “The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.” — Henri Poincaré

Students are blogging for their portfolio in chemistry class. Their initial post is an assignment of introducing themselves. Here are student responses to the question “Who is the scientist within you?”:

~  Mariah   ~   David   ~    Gwen   ~   Krystal   ~   Megan   ~   Kevin   ~   Alex   ~   Alena   ~    Dakota   ~   Rachel S   ~   Corey   ~   Skylar    ~   Blaine   ~   Kade   ~   Mike   ~   Molly   ~   Lauren   ~   Jess   ~   Kassidy   ~   Cody   ~   Devin   ~   Cam   ~   Sam   ~   Isabella   ~   Devan   ~   Taressa   ~   Maddie   ~   Rachel D.   ~   Madison   ~   LeeAnne   ~   Nicolette   ~   Olivia   ~   Caitlin   ~   Michaela   ~   Haley   ~   June   ~   Elise   ~   Hannah   ~

“The great thing about science is that it rewards curiosity. We can continue to be childlike and constantly ask why, and not be judged or penalized by it.” — Elaine Chew

We love science!

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