Significant Figures

Out of all the things covered in this unit, significant figures was my least favorite. For some reason, this concept just did not agree with me. One of the things that really helped me understand it though was this simple picture:


http://cbchemistry.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/7/1/10716575/1034036_orig.jpg

Having the rules laid out in front of me cut and dry made things very easy to understand. It paid off looking at this chart, too, because I ended up doing really well on my test! Thanks google. :)

Here is a website that really helped me out!

If you're still stuck, here's another site that explains it a different way: in tutorial form

Mole Day!

Last Friday, we had mole day. What is mole day, you ask? Well quite simply, we celebrated the unit of a mole! A mole is 6.022 x 10^23. This was determined by the number of particles found in 12.000 grams of carbon-12; a mole of carbon-12 atoms has 6.022 x 1023 carbon-12 atoms. A mole is also known as Avogadro's Number. To celebrate the mole, we all made stuffed moles and brought in food!

Here are all of our moles: 

 If we zoom in a bit here I think we can spot my mole...

It beautiful. 

Happy Belated Mole Day.

***Helpful Hint: this website is great to learn more about a mole.

Aspirin Lab Day 2

On day 2, we continued the lab by isolating the product.

First we set up the Buchner funnel and wet the filter paper to ensure good suction.

We then poured the aspirin solution into the funnel. The flask was rinsed with water and poured into the funnel to make sure no crystals were left behind. Then we dried the crystals by pulling air through the funnel for 15 minutes.

Once the excess water was removed, we removed the filter paper with the aspirin on it with tweezers and place it on a watch glass. We moved the aspirin onto a double folded paper towel and placed this on a side table to completely dry over fall break.

If you wanted to know more about how a Buchner funnel is used, check out this awesome video for more information.

Also, more information about the chemical changes occurring during the synthesis of aspirin can be found on this informative website.

Aspirin Lab Day 1

Because my partner Lauren and I passed the prelab questions, we got to do the Aspirin Lab.

On the first day, we first weighed out 5.00 g of salicylic acid, added 7.00 mL of acetic anhydride, and 8 drops of sulfuric acid to an Erlenmeyer flask.

Then, we assembled a hot water bath in an 800 mL beaker and placed the flask with the chemicals into the bath. Once it started boiling, we let it boil for 15 minutes.

Once it finished heating, the flask was removed and left to cool for 3 minutes on the lab bench. Then 15 mL of ice cold water was added to remove the excess acetic anhydride.

We mixed the content and left it to crystalize for the next day.

If you wanted to know the actual process of how aspirin crystalizes, check out this awesome website to learn more!

Post- Unit Exam

I found this unit to be really easy for me personally. Last unit, I had a really tough time learning all of the polyatomic ions and remembering the different ways to name compounds. Once I got that unit down, though, this one was a breeze! The pretest seemed impossible, but once the information was given to us, it all made sense (funny how that works). I was actually pretty excited for this unit because I used to want to be a nuclear engineer. Also, decay and half life was interesting to learn about because it can tell us so much that I would have never thought we could know! I think I did okay on the test, but whenever I say that I end up doing bad, so fingers crossed. Overall, I enjoyed this unit and am curious to hear what we will learn about next.

Alpha Beta and Gamma Radiations

The three different radiations can be a little bit confusing to keep separated in my mind, so I thought compiling my information and creating a blog post might solidify some information. :) 

Alpha Radiation/Decay
The symbol for alpha radiation is 

Symbolized with a sideways fish that I can't type.

Helium nucleus

Mass # -4
Atomic # -2

Beta Radiation/Decay

The symbol for beta radiation is 

Symbolized with a fancy capital B that I also cannot type.

Electron

Mass #- no change
Atomic #- +1

Gamma Radiation/Decay

The symbol for gammas radiation is 

Symbolized with a lowercase fancy Y that I, yet again, cannot type.

Releases high energy forms of light called photons.

Mass #- no change
Atomic #- no change

Accompanies alpha and beta decay. 

I found this website extremely helpful in learning more about the three different type of decay.
Also, this video is helpful  to learn how to write nuclear equations with these 3 radiations.