Sunday, January 31, 2016

Vitamin C lab





I liked the Vitamin C lab because we got to work at our own pace and I didn't feel rushed to get the lab done. The slower pace helped me understand the procedure better and helped me understand the concept of titrations better. Our task was to test 4 different vegetable and fruit juices to figure out the vitamin C concentration in each. To do so,  we added starch to a small sample of each juice so when we dropped Iodine into the solution, the Iodine would react with the Vitamin C and when all the Vitamin C was used up, the solution would turn dark blue when the Iodine is dropped. When the Iodine reacts with the Vitamin C, it produces a clear liquid. When all the Vitamin C is used up in the reaction, the Iodine begins to react with the starch instead. The reaction between the starch and Iodine creates the dark blue solution, which indicates that the Vitamin C has been used up. We tested the different juices and compared to a standard solution to figure out the concentrations.



Thursday, January 21, 2016

Unit Exam


I'm really nervous for the Unit Test tomorrow because I feel like we didn't get enough time and practice for this unit. One of the things I'm worried about is the acid base reactions because I don't recall learning that in class. I referred to the text book for this, but I also referred to outside links to learn more about it. As usual, I also did the Test Prep on schoology which usually helps me a lot.

Aqueous Solutions Summary
Solution: a homogeneous mixture
Solute: dissolved in the solvent
Solvent: present in the largest quantity in the solution

Solubility:
  • Ionic Substances: anion and cation split if they are more attracted to the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water
  • Polar Substances: if the molecule has a similar structure to water, it will dissolve in water
  • Substances that are insoluble in water: oil because it is nonpolar and therefore cannot dissolve in polar water. Chains of Carbons and Hydrogens cannot be dissolved in water
Solution Composition: amount of solute that can be dissolved in a solvent
  • unsaturated: below saturation line
  • saturated: on the saturation line 
  • supersaturated: above the saturation line

Factors that determine how fast a solute will dissolve:
  • surface area: increased surface area to contact solvent
  • stirring; increases surface area
  • temperature: increased molecule activity 
Mass Percentage: 


Molarity: 










Ex-







Concentration of Ions:
 (I hope that helps because it helped me a lot)

Dilutions: 

Aliquot: a portion of a larger whole, especially when dealing with a smaller sample of a mass concentration of a solution in chemistry

Using Molarities in Stoichiometry: 


Neutralization Reactions/Acid Base Reactions:
(I still don't really get this part but it was in chapter 15 so I included it)
  • when a strong acid and base react, they neutralize creating water and a salt
  • you can use the molarity and volumes of the acid or base to find missing parts
Normality:
  • equivalent of an acid: the amount of acid that can furnish 1 mol H+;ex: 1 mol HCl=1 equiz H+
  • equivalent of a base: amount of that base that can furnish 1 mol H+
  • example: 1/2 mol H2SO4=1 equiv H2SO4 


This Link explains the Normality section but goes really into detail, however it does help in covering what is covered in the textbook.

Other Helpful Links:
Molarity in Stiochiometry: Video link

Practice:







Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Murder Investigation Lab


 Day 1

So far, I think the hardest part of the lab was writing our own procedure. We tend to like it when a set of written directions are given to us because then if we follow the procedure precisely we're bound to perform the experiment correctly and get the desired results. Since we've never written our own procedure before it was really challenging, but since we had to figure it out on our own I think we got a better understanding of the process.

Day 2

First, we tested the two possible reactions to see which one precipitated, and seeing that both seemed to precipitate, we chose to react the unknown substance with the aqueous sodium chloride. Next, we had to mix the two liquids and let a precipitate form in a testable quantity. Filtering out the precipitate took really long so I had to come back and take out the filter paper during Howell Time.




After the lab:

After we had collected our data, we used this Data to determine the unknown substance and it's molarity and compare it with the list to suspects to figure out who committed the crime. The calculations required our knowledge of molarity from this unit as well as stoichiometry and other things from other units.

Analysis of Hydrogen Peroxide Lab


I was kind of disappointed that we didn't get to actually do the lab because I really enjoy lab because it is an interesting hands on learning experience and I prefer it over worksheets. However, I think that we got the same outcome from the lab by doing just the calculations because that is the purpose of the lab: to practice solving these problems that we could be tested on. The one good thing about not doing the lab was that we didn't have to do the pre-lab quiz.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Weekly Quiz #1


I ended up studying for this quiz for like three hours so I hope I get a good grade on it because I want to start the semester off on a good note. I did a lot of the practice problems from the Test Prep on schoology and I found that a lot of the questions on the quiz were similar to those online, which helped me because I had already practiced the questions online. The hardest part of the quiz was the questions about the ion concentrations because I feel like we didn't practice many of those in class and didn't talk about it much. However, I was pretty confident about the finding the Molarity questions because we had a lot of practice due to the labs, test prep, and etc.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Dilutions Lab


This small lab/activity was a good learning experience because we got to measure out all the dilutions as well as practice some simple calculations involved in this process. I also liked this activity because it didn't have a pre-lab quiz. The pre-lab quizzes stress me out. It was a simple hands on activity that added to our lecture and solidified our understanding of the material.