AP Chemistry

Recently, we did a lab that was probably the most slow going one we have done so far. The work was really precise; We worked drop by drop to ensure that we were as close to the proper measurements, and it took us a few times to actually do the experiment properly. Thankfully, our classmates had enough time on their hands to help us out.

The goal of the lab was to determine the amount of electrons gained by manganese in a permanganate ion during a redox reaction. Last year, we learned the trick OIL RIG to remember that an Oxidation reaction is one where it Loses an electron, whereas a Reduction reaction involves one Gaining an electron. I’d forgotten that over the summer, but this experiment refreshed it for me! 

Even if it was a bit tedious, and even if it took us three times, this experiment was great because it really did help me remember some of the things that I’d previously learned, that slipped my mind between last year and now.

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The most recent lab that we had been conducting

in our magnificent classroom was a titration lab experiment of instructing.

For the first time, we were actually split up into groups

conducting the same experiment just in separate loops.

I have to admit this was much more…. gratifying?

I’m not sure about my class mates but I learned more when I was able to do the classifying.

It was much more hands on

and then later we were able to compare our results, we were close to dead on.

Now to get to the fun stuff,

the lab itself was…different and kind of tuff.

It was tedious

and I felt like after the 6th “performance” it was becoming quite horrendous.

Besides the 3rd evaluation,

all of the results were close in ration,

that is to say dropping potassium permanganate, not dilute,  

into a vile of hydrogen peroxide salute

mixed with hydrochloric acid and awaiting the counting drops

until it no longer disappeared but rather turned the solution peach tinted, KERPLOP!

My partner and I then assumed

that the 3rd performance must have contained some error on our part, so we were doomed….

maybe we miscounted?

Nothing can be doubted.

It was educational none the less

and kept me counting all day, I guess!

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The purpose of this lab was to determine the number of electrons that manganese in permanganate ion will gain in an oxidation reduction reaction with hydrogen peroxide.This lab was more difficult than the previous one, as my partner and I had to repeat the lab a few times to ensure we had done it correctly. The first time there was a chance we got the hydrogen peroxide and the hydrochloric acid mixed up, and I didn’t want to risk it. The second time we ended up forgetting a step and just got completely lost. It wasn’t that the procedures were difficult, it was more the fact we couldn’t always understand the wording of the steps and I think both of our self-confidences were low so we would think we did it wrong when it was correct. I think re-doing the lab so many times allowed us to learn more overall. The other groups were also nice enough to clarify some of the directions, which helped us complete the lab in the end. Are results were pretty close to the other groups so I believe we did this lab correctly.

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This lab was the first of many labs I hope to complete in this class. The main idea of this lab was to identify an unknown compound. Most of the steps were simple to follow, up until step 18. This step required precision a steady hand, and a little bit of luck. Luckily for us we had those in the form of Candace, the boys group however did not. After we finished the lab we were able to identify our substance as table salt, we also calculated our percent error. Ours was only .6% thanks to Candace the boys was much higher, but considering how many times they punctured and reapplied the filter paper it was still pretty low. I had fun with this lab, but I wish I participated more in the lab.  I look forward to doing many more labs in the future.

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Even since The Dark One has instructed us to read and follow procedures for experiments things have gotten confusing… This redox titration procedures was a major headache!! The instructions involved like 4 solutions and well we got through it somehow. Our potassium permanganate get dropped into a hydrogen peroxide solution until the solution turned into an amber colored solutions and we repeated 4 times. Our results were all over the place!!! So we have something interesting to talk about in our discussion coming up. We might of done something wrong… Ehhhhh

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So a few Sunday’s ago, I went to church like every Sunday but this time I was in for a BIG surprise. We had a guest preacher and the topic he chose wasn’t far from ordinary. He was speaking on how God was so specific that he had made the world as He had, and the speaker was using the basic explanation of photosynthesis to do it, trying to explain why the leaves fall off the trees and blah blah blah. He went all out on it too, with a slide show presentation and a video to explain. I knew that this stuff we were learning in class could be applied to real life, I mean Mrs. Lorance told us so so it had to be right, but I never would have thought I would see it in church! But the fact that it was in the church sermon wasn’t the funniest part. The funny part was the fact that I felt like such a nerd when I had to raise my hand and correct the speaker because he kept using the term carbon MONoxide rather than carbon DIoxide! Not to mention when I did correct him, he hadn’t realized that there was even a difference between the two!!!

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AP Chemistry must have been getting too main-stream for the wonderful Mrs. Lorance because just when us students thought that it couldn’t get any more crazy (yeah right not with Mrs. Lorance teaching!), she threw us another curveball…or should I say marshmallow? To help us understand the new topic she was to introduce to us, she proposed learning it in one of the sweetest ways: with two cinnamon crackers, a marshmallow, and chocolate! That’s right we were going to make s’mores (S2MmOr3) in a science laboratory!!! However, it was all ooey and gooey until she decided to bring out the math to go along with it. Stoichiometry as a concept in itself is complicated enough, but when you relate it to chocolate and marshmallows…it gets stickier! Using basic math we were able to calculate that having 36 marshmallows (Mm) we could create 36 s’mores. Or so we thought. Having about the same number of graham crackers (S) and 4 chocolate bars (Or), it seemed to be possible – that is until we actually started to make them. As it turns out, we were only able to make 19 s’mores. I’m still not sure if it was because we ran out of chocolate (our limiting reagent) or because we couldn’t eat anymore, but in either case, 19 was our conclusion. The lab was exciting and a great way to begin a new lesson! Who knew a dash of math in the original s’mores recipe could be so delicious!?!

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The monstrous stoichiometry is a terrifying beast that forces those who find it to form stuff from other stuff! The Stoich is everywhere! It’s in your soap, your water, and your favorite food! But it’s especially in your s’mores! How is it in my s’mores? Good question! Say you have:

One bag of marshmallows(Mm) (36 in a bag)
One box of graham crackers(S) (48 crackers in a box *divided into two parts)
And three Hershey chocolate bars (4 pieces of chocolate in each(Or))

But how many S’mores does that make? Well the Stoich says:

2S + Mm + Or = S’more

We have 36 marshmallows and so could make 36 S’mores, right? Wrong!
Because the Stoich says we need 2 graham crackers per S’more we can only make 24 S’mores. But!! 24 S’mores needs 24 pieces of chocolate, and we only have 12 pieces. So now we can only make 12 S’mores. Sad day! Thanks for the help Stoich!

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In our quest to figure out AP Chemistry we run into stoichiometry :/….. If anyone has done this before they know the how tedious this can be for everyone. Our dark lord (Ms. Lorance) took a tiny baby step to understand the stoich. She says let’s make dessert!!! A simple s’mores making section…. In the lab!!! We used the burners for the fun activity 🙂 (a first for me). The lesson came in when we had to figure out how to see how many we could make with the materials. We had a possibility of making 36 s’mores with the crackers, 24 with our chocolate and about 32 with our marshmallows. Making chocolate our limiting reagent. We ended up making 19 s’mores and and 17 crackers left and 5 chocolates left… we would have counted the marshmallows but one of classmates decided he wanted to chop down on them. I ate 4 s’mores that day and I was like WOOOW!! Tons of C6H12O6!!!!

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Not much is sweeter than Kool-aid, but it was pretty sweet to get to make Kool-aid mixed with alcohol! 70% isopropyl alcohol of course! Adding different concentrations of the stuff caused the Kool-aid to change to colors throughout experimentation. 5% will get you a rough red, 25% will give purple Kool-aid the blues and once you try 70% what do you get? You guessed it, clear! But now comes the big question. Why is it changing colors at all? The answer is polarity. Polar molecules in the Kool-aid would stay in the nonpolar filter and as the different isopropyl concentrations (which were also polar) traveled through the filter, they picked up some of the molecules they thought were cute. Different concentrations have different standards though, and the way they felt affected the color that was produced as it passed through the nonpolar filter and into the vile.

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