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!