Thursday, November 12, 2015

Formula of a Chloride Lab

I think with all this practice, these empirical formulas are becoming easier and easier to solve. Today's pre-lab quiz was really simple, and I was stoked that we were able to confer with our partners. It allowed me to catch some simple calculation errors that would've maybe given be the incorrect answer. However, I think the concept of finding empirical formulas is very simple. I just need to practice and memorize some more. The lab we did today was similar to Monday's lab, except this time, we heated zinc and hydrochloric acid. After a couple minutes on the hot plate, the zinc would dissolve into the acid, as shown in this picture.


The resulting product was a solid resembling table salt. 




Like the Formula of a Hydrate lab, we took the masses of the beaker, beaker plus zinc, and beaker plus zinc/acid. These masses would be used at the end to calculate the empirical formula of zinc chloride.

Overall, this lab was interesting. The only thing I absolutely despised was the SMELL of the chlorine gas. It smelled kind of like metal, but VERY pungent metal. Looking forward to future labs.


3 comments:

  1. Awesome pics! They really captured the lab well. As for the smell, I could have gone without it as well.

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  2. Good job on the lab! I also thought it was pretty cool how she let us collaborate with our partners for the pre-lab. The smell however, was not as cool.

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  3. You're right, it did smell pretty intense, and I kind of couldn't wait to get out of the room because of that, but after you got used to it, the lab itself was pretty cool. I was really glad we got to talk to our partners, because I would have been really confused if mine hadn't helped me out.

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