Crystal lab

During the crystal lab (which I was really looking forward to) I completely messed up my crystal. In fact it is still in a small beaker which is in a larger beaker which is still trying to dissolve. STILL! I guess I put too much aluminum potassium sulfate 12-hydrate crystal (AKA: Baker analyzed Reagent) into it.

The premisis for this experiment was to make some crystals on a string. We add about (actually i added two things of salt) and stirred till most of the salt or all of it was dissovled in the water. Then I added even more "salt" , as I call it and stirred it, this time resulting in a little being left in the bottom of the beaker. I left it over night and returned the next class period to find that i had no seed crystals what so ever! (I told you this was a frustrating experiment.) So I added more "salt" within the first mixture i had created under a high heat and then left it alone. It failed yet again.

So i asked for someone else's crystal, going for the experiment, to see if we can see a colored seed crystal on the outside of the clear crystal mine was SUPPOSED to form. Yet again a fail. As you can tell from the picture above, my crystal grew too big and was a sold white color, not clear. Which led me to the conclusion that I put too much salt into my beaker. Over all my experiment failed. Yet the other experiments were great. We had several crystals that turned out in beautiful square crystals and deep colors. I learned that you had to have a stopping point, even if it is a experiment and that you want to go all out.

Beer's Law

Beer's Law is a simple law actually. The law states that the clearer the liquid the more light it can pass through thus the abosrbance rate it low but when the liquid is darker that means the absorbance rate it high. Sort of like when you where a black t shirt out in the sun, you get hot easily. yet when you wear a white shirt it stays cooler then when you wear a black shirt.

When we began the experiment we tested the light source (which is was a red laser since the solution was green) and then gave the solution out into beakers. Each going up but 10 ml each beaker. As we filled each beaker the solution became less concentrated thus allowing more light to shine through. But as it was a lower setting (such as 10 ml flat) no light was allowed through.

When we began the experiment ( as in Timmy, Jessie, Tenchita, and I) we began by calibrating the colorimeter which is a tiny black box that holds cuvettes (little rectangle thingies that had a smooth side and a rough side. the rough side is where we could place our fingers. WE couldn't place fingerprints on the smooth side or it would mess up the experiment.) We filled the cuvette with a known solution of Nickel (2) sulfate solution and we measured it within the colorimeter making a graph that we can compare the unknown solution to.

When we began to compare the unknown solution(s) we compared them to the known solution graph thus finding the absorbency in mol/L. After the experiments were done we cleaned up our mess and saved the picture (which will go up later ONCE I find it! should have written down the computer number).

Experiment

I designed my own lab today.  With the help of Mr. Ludwig I hope to test it out soon.

How the idea came about?

This idea came about during a very random conversation with a friend over Skype. We were discussing our favorite food entrees and mine so happened to be Tequila marinated steaks. Specifically Lowery's tequila marinade. Which has been discontinued. My friend had given me a look of disgust and said that would be something he did not try as alcohol made meat rubbery. He said that if it was the correct volume of alcohol it would even allow the meat to bounce like a bouncy ball. So to prove him wrong (or right as he is notoriously right about things ) I am going to try it.

Materials needed:

  1. some form of alcohol (Ethanol, alcohol, rubbing alcohol, and or some liquor)
  2. a rump roast or some form of meat (cut for multiple tests)
  3. a testing area (preferably a school wall so I can record and take data)
  4. a computer
  5. a recording device (Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, mac book)
Basic outline of test:

I would start off by measuring around 20-30 mm of each form of alcohol in a small bowl or dish. With each cut of meat I will "marinate" each cut for about the normal time for a marinating period, say about a hour to a hour and a half. After the correct amount of time has passed I shall take each cut of meat and test its "bouncy-ness" by throwing it at the school wall. If it bounces, then I will have to give in and pay up to my friend, if not he pays up.

I shall take it further though and continue my experiments.

Experiments:
HOw long will it bounce?
Will it bounce?
Which alcohol works the best?

popcorn lab

This lab was extensively amusing to do. (please ignore the cuss word. it was either me or Timmy and neither of us can remember when we jumped)

Supplies:

1. 100 grams of oil
2. 30 corn kernnals
3. a beaker
4. a bunson burner
5. a striker
6. gas
7. bagged popcorn

Procedure:
First we weighed the beaker. Then added the corn and weighed it again. Each weighed about a gram more/less respectfully. Leigh managed to turn the burner on and we waited for the kernels to reach the appropriate temperature before it began to pop. It was crucial for us not to burn the popcorn (I had a theory that burned popcorn weighs more, where we managed for the most part and then we had to wait for the popcorn to cool down.
WE weighed again (each about weighing a gram and a half each more) and found that the popcorn, popped had more massed being fluffy then actually being a hardened kernel. I thought that was interesting for the most part because i believed it would have lost mass instead of gaining that.

IT raised some questions for me though.
Is this a constant factor with popcorn? What if we tried this with other items that will pop, would the same result happen? It seems like the water from the popcorn had evaporated and that had caused the reaction which was the popping of the kernel. Why would not the oil then rejuvinate the kernel as the water evaporated as it does for human skin?

measurements and calculations

What I learned is that a mole (the scientific mole, not the ugly little rodent) is a way of measuring a element. Each element has a certain amount of matter that is within each element and to calculate you can do the above mentioned formula or you can do a different one that is more to your standards. Most common way to find the elusive mole is to take grams divided by grams per mole and since you remove both grams from the equation you are left with moles. Yet dont take my word for word. Try it.

Say you have say 20 g that needs to be converted to moles. How you would set that up is this :

1. First set up the equation as this.  (g= grams, Zn= zinc, m= moles)
 20gZn (we are using zinc in the equation) so 20gZn (1m/xg)
2. multiply the 20 by one which is 20.
3. this is where you need the periodic to help you. Whatever element that you have please look up the grams that is in the element. in this case 65.39. and plug said number into the x postion.

Your equation now looks like this:
20/65.39g.

4. 20 divided by 65.39 g
5. which equals the number of moles. Which in this case is 0.305 or approx m= .31.

please remember to put the element behind the gram sign. It will save you a lot of headache later on.