Air Bag Lab

Today was our airbag lab. Our class's runs went pretty well, everyone passed. To make up for the lack of failure, me and Ganon launched Operation Allahu Vinegar.  Our first test went pretty well, but the second test was pretty anticlimactic.

I thought this was Chemistry, not Government

Now this is becoming a doozy. In this unit, we need to know a bunch of gas laws. To review, we have:

Ideal Gas Law: Used to find missing variables in a problem; remember R = .0812

  PV = nRT

Charles's Law: The relationship between volume and temperature;

V1/T1 = V2/T2

Avogadro's Law: The relationship between volume and moles;

V1/n1 = V2/n2

Boyle's Law: The relationship between pressure and volume;

P1V1 = P2V2

Gas Laws Quiz

    Today was our Gas Laws quiz. I think I did okay, but there were a couple of questions I didn't know. I think I should have gone over the book passages alongside our notes, because the ones I wasn't so sure about were mostly conceptual.

Last Unit of the Year!

     Today we start our last unit of the year: Gas Laws. The first day's notes consisted of Boyle's Law: Basically, some really smart guy called Boyle figured out that volume and pressure have an inverse relationship (when keeping temp and moles constant). I don't think this unit is too bad so far, but then again, its only been one day.

Specific Heat of a Metal Lab

      Today, we did a lab where we had to determine the specific heat of a metal by heating it and measuring its change in temperature after dumping it in room temp water. I think me and Zuri did alright disregarding the fact that our percent error was over 200.

New Unit!

     Today we start our Unit on Energy and Phase Changes. Today's lecture was just over the difference between endothermic and exothermic reactions. I remember always getting the two confused in physical science, but I hope I don't get the two confused here.

The Silver Serpent Sails the Cyan Seas!

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of the Silver Serpent (in all her glory), but I 

think this stock photo is pretty accurate as to what it looked like

     Finally, the day to test our put-put boats has come. Zuri and I came in with high hopes and left with only the bitter taste of defeat to torment our palate, like an apple not quite as ripe as the bosom from which biodiesel giveth and taketh away. Anyhow, congratulations to those who had speedy boats, and to those who had not quite as speedy boats.

     I dedicate this blog post to an underdog that will live on forever in our hearts:

  RIP SILVER SERPENT 2016-2016

More Biodiesel

                                 Remember kids, always waft                 "Looks like mud"

     Another biodiesel themed project (hooray...), but this time, we actually get to synthesize biodiesel. More importantly, we will be using the biodiesel we make to power our put-put boats!

Biodiesel Video Contest!

     Ahhh yes, finally. Our Biodiesel PSA is finished. Lining up schedules and editing all the footage was the hardest part, but I think we ended up with a decent project. Fingers crossed for the chance at some money too!






P.S. And remember: Buy Bio; Ditch Diesel

Bonding Review

     I definitely found this unit to be one of our hardest so far. So, to prepare for the test, I've compiled a list of websites to use for studying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nzeCpCb3k
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/chemical/bond.html
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/chemical-bonds

Bonding is Hard

     So far Bonding has been kinda hard for me. I walked up and introduced myself to chemical bonding, tried to strike a conversation, and was answered with a slap across the face. I'm having difficulty differentiating between molecular shape and molecular geometry. However, this is one of those times where I truly appreciate the internet. I found this video, and it's been helping me a lot.

Another One

     Today we begin another new unit: Chemical Bonding. As always, the first day was pretty easy; We just took notes on Lewis Dot Structures of an atom. However, I predict that this unit will slowly devolve into a mindless slurry of information, like always.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Frankenberg!

Today was Mrs. Frankenberg's birthday! To celebrate, we had a party with cupcakes and goldfish galore. Today also marks the end of Electronic Structure & Periodic Trends, and tomorrow will return us to a lecture day. I wish everyone good luck on the upcoming unit!

Unit Exam Reflection

This units final exam wasn't too hard. It certainly helped that I got an extra day to study when Mrs. Frankenberg moved the test to Friday. I think there was a good balance of hard and easy questions, and I hope that I did well.

Test Review

Tomorrow is our test, so I'd better study up! I've found some websites to help me study for it too. This site help explain all the periodic trends.
Electron Configuration was definitely the hardest chapter for me, so this site really helped me.
Plus a bonus site for quantum numbers.

Quiz Review

Tomorrow is gonna be our quiz, so I better study up! I think the hardest part of the quiz will be on electron configuration, so I've found a really helpful video by Khan Academy that I'll definitely use to study.

Spectroscopic Analysis of Cr and Co

This lab was probably one of the most tedious we've had so far. Having to adjust the measurements every time we upped the wavelength took way too long than it should. Ganon and I used two different spectrophotometers, and the lab still took us until the bell. 

Our spectrophotometer looked a little like this

Flame Test Lab

In our Flame Test Lab, we burned chemicals using the Bunsen burner and observed the colors produced. We also used blue cobalt glass to cancel out the orange of the flame and better observe the colors produced.

Some of the different colors we produced

Acids and Bases Final Exam Tomorrow!

This test is supposed to be the hardest we've had so far, so we better study up! Some areas I know I need to review are the conjugate acid-base pairs and acid/base strength. Luckily I found some links to help me study up!

Acid-Base Pairs
Acid Dissociation Equilibrium
pH
Ice Box

And the Mystery Acid Has Been Revealed!

Today, Mrs. Frankenberg gave us our percent error & revealed our mystery acid. It was..... our Aspirin! Turns out Detective Ganon was right all along.

Molar Mass of Unknown Acid Lab Day 2

Today was day two of our Molar Mass of Unknown Acid Lab. We were able to finish our titrations and even get some calculations finished. Ganon pointed out to me that our aspirin was missing, and the containers of aspirin were near the containers of the unknown acid. Hmmmm....

The lightest pink we've ever gotten.

Molar Mass of Unknown Acid Lab Day 1

Today we started our Molar Mass of Unknown Acid Lab. We decided to standardize our NaOH again, but in turn didn't have time to start titrating our unknown acid. Tomorrow though, we'll be able to finish and check our percent error in the meantime.

 Standardizing our NaOH and attempting to heat up the acid to no avail :'(

btw happy Lunar New Year

Percent Acetic Acid in Vinegar Lab Day 2

Today we finished the the Percent Acetic Acid in Vinegar lab, and were able to get some calculations in too. I don't think our percent error will be very big, but we'll see.

A bunch of chemicals and people's feet

Percent Acetic Acid in Vinegar Lab Day 1

Today was the first day of our Percent Acid in Vinegar Lab. We only have time to gather data needed to standardize the NaOH solution, but I think we will have enough time tomorrow to finish the lab.

We had to pay super close attention to our Erlenmeyer flasks when titrating the solutions.

Links for Aqueous Solutions

With the Aqueous Solutions Exam being tomorrow, I've found some links to study from.

A website for Molarity

Another website for Molarity

A website for Concentrations of Solutions

A website for Solubility

Another website for Solubility & Solubility Curves

Another website for Solubility Curves

Murder Lab Reflection

I actually really liked the Murder Mystery Lab. The calculations were fairly straightforward, the lab work wasn't too tedious, and the chemistry involved isn't too complicated to understand. The only thing I can complain about is how long it took to write out the procedure and such.

Molarity Lab

Today we started the molarity lab in class. In this lab, we have to figure out the poison used to murder Miss Scarlet, using a variety of chemistry concepts along the way. Today, we conducted reactions using silver nitrate and sodium carbonate. Later we will measure the mass of the precipitate formed in this reaction to find the molarity of the murder weapon.

     AgNO₃ + Na₂CO₃                      Filtering out the precipitate

Good to the Last Drop

Today we took notes on dilutions and did a lab where we started with an initial solution of 10 milliliters of water and 20 drops of food coloring. We then took one milliliter of the initial solution and diluted it with 9 milliliters of water. We then repeated the steps using each subsequent solution as the initial.

The solutions at the end of the lab