Welcome! Today we will be discussing tips on setting up your work station, and going over the contents in your chemistry kit.
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This experiment is for advanced students. This is a repeat of the experiment: Can Fish Drown? but now we’re going to do this experiment again with your new chemistry glassware.
The aquarium looked normal in every way, except for the fish. They were breathing very fast and sinking head first to the bottom of the tank. They would sink a few inches, then jerk into proper movement again.
The student had to figure out what was wrong. He had set up the aquarium as an ongoing science project, and it was his responsibility to maintain the fish tank. His grade depended on it.
He went to his mom for help. She looked over the setup. “Have you tested the water?”
A quizzical look on his face, the boy said, “Everything is normal nitrates, nitrites, hardness, alkalinity, and pH. The pH was a little acidic, but not outside the proper range.”
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This experiment is for advanced students.
Zinc and Hydrogen are important elements for all of us. Zinc (Zn) metal is element #30 on the periodic table. Lack of zinc in our diets will delay growth of our bodies and can kill.
Hydrogen gas (H) is element #1 on the periodic table. Hydrogen was discovered in the 1500s. In a pure state, hydrogen combustion (in small quantities) is interesting. In large amounts, mixed with oxygen, the explosion can be devastating.
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This experiment is for advanced students.
In industry, hydrogen peroxide is used in paper making to bleach the pulp before they form it into paper. Biologists, when preparing bones for display, use peroxide to whiten the bones.
At home, 3% peroxide combined with ammonium hydroxide is used to give dark-haired people their desired blonde moment. Peroxide is also used on wounds to clean them and remove dead tissue. Peroxide slows the flow from small blood vessels and oozing in wounds as well.
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This experiment is for advanced students.
Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) in water turns an intense, deep, purple. It is important in the film industry for aging props and clothing to make them look much older than they are.
Also, artists use it in bone carving. People who carve antlers and bone use KMnO4 to darken the surface of the bone to make it look aged. They make the carving, soak it in potassium permanganate, then carve more, and repeat. The end result is a carving that has a light golden brown color. More dipping will darken the carving even more.
Potassium permanganate is going to undergo a chemical change with this activity. In this experiment, we will be able to witness several indicators of chemical change. Color changes, bubbles from gas generation, temperature change, and color disappearance are all indicators of chemical changes.
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Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) in water turns an intense, deep, purple. It is important in the film industry for aging props and clothing to make them look much older than they are.
Also, artists use it in bone carving. People who carve antlers and bone use KMnO4 to darken the surface of the bone to make it look aged. They make the carving, soak it in potassium permanganate, then carve more, and repeat. The end result is a carving that has a light golden brown color. More dipping will darken the carving even more.
Potassium permanganate is going to undergo a chemical change with this activity. In this experiment, we will be able to witness several indicators of chemical change. Color changes, bubbles from gas generation, temperature change, and color disappearance are all indicators of chemical changes.
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This experiment is for advanced students.
Brimstone is another name for sulfur, and if you’ve ever smelled it burn…..whoa….I’m telling you ….you will see for yourself in this lab. It is quite a smell, for sure. Sulfur is element #6 on the periodic table. Sulfur is used in fertilizer, black powder, matches, and insecticides. In pioneer times sulfur was put into patent medicines and used as a laxative.
To further the evil reputation of sulfur, or brimstone, when sulfur is burned in a coal fired power plant, sulfur dioxide is produced. The sulfur is spewed into the air, where it is reacts with moisture in the air to form sulfuric acid. The clouds get full and need to let go of this sulfuric acid. Down comes the acid rain to wreak havoc on the masonry and plant life below.
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WARNING!! THIS EXPERIMENT IS PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS!! (No kidding.) This experiment is for advanced students.
We’ve created a video that shows you how to safely do this experiment, although if you’re nervous about doing this one, just watch the video and skip the actual experiment.
The gas you generate with this experiment is lethal in large doses, so you MUST do this experiment outdoors. We’ll be making a tiny amount to show how the chemical reactions of chlorine and hydrogen work.
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You can go your whole life without paying any attention to the chemistry behind acids and bases. But you use acids and bases all the time! They are all around you. We identify acids and bases by measuring their pH.
Every liquid has a pH. If you pay particular attention to this lab, you will even be able to identify most acids and bases and understand why they do what they do. Acids range from very strong to very weak. The strongest acids will dissolve steel. The weakest acids are in your drink box. The strongest bases behave similarly. They can burn your skin or you can wash your hands with them.
Acid rain is one aspect of low pH that you can see every day if you look for it. This is a strange name, isn’t it? We get rained on all the time. If people were dissolving, if the rain made their skin smoke and burn, you’d think it would make headlines, wouldn’t you? The truth is acid rain is too weak to harm us except in very rare and localized conditions. But it’s hard on limestone buildings.
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Magnesium is one of the most common elements in the Earth’s crust. This alkaline earth metal is silvery white, and soft. As you perform this lab, think about why magnesium is used in emergency flares and fireworks. Farmers use it in fertilizers, pharmacists use it in laxatives and antacids, and engineers mix it with aluminum to create the BMW N52 6-cylinder magnesium engine block. Photographers used to use magnesium powder in the camera’s flash before xenon bulbs were available.
Most folks, however, equate magnesium with a burning white flame. Magnesium fires burn too hot to be extinguished using water, so most firefighters use sand or graphite.
We’re going to learn how to (safely) ignite a piece of magnesium in the first experiment, and next how to get energy from it by using it in a battery in the second experiment. Are you ready?
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This experiment is for advanced students.
How do you know if your brother is stealing your candy? Unwrap a wrapped hard candy that he likes a lot. Roll the candy around in the powdered food dye that matches the candy. (Push the powder into the candy so it “disappears”.) Re-wrap the candy. Set the candy in the place where it usually disappears from. Wait ten minutes after the candy disappears. Find your brother. He will be sporting a new color on his hands and mouth. Dye is hard to remove. It will have to be worn every day at school until it fades away as the skin cells slough off. The dye he now wears is in indicator that he has been taking your candy.
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How do you know if your brother is stealing your candy? Unwrap a wrapped hard candy that he likes a lot. Roll the candy around in the powdered food dye that matches the candy. (Push the powder into the candy so it “disappears”.) Re-wrap the candy. Set the candy in the place where it usually disappears from. Wait ten minutes after the candy disappears. Find your brother. He will be sporting a new color on his hands and mouth. Dye is hard to remove. It will have to be worn every day at school until it fades away as the skin cells slough off. The dye he now wears is in indicator that he has been taking your candy.
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Electricity. Chemistry. Nothing in common, have nothing to do with each other. Wrong! Electrochemistry has been a fact since 1774. Once electricity was applied to particular solutions, changes occurred that scientists of the time did not expect.
In this lab, we will discover some of the same things that Farraday found over 300 years ago. We will be there as things tear apart, particles rush about, and the power of attraction is very strong. We’re not talking about dancing, we’re talking about something much more important and interesting….we’re talking about ELECTROCHEMISTRY!
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If we don’t have salt, we die. It’s that simple. The chemical formula for salt is NaCl. Broken down, we have Na (sodium) and Cl (chlorine). Either one of these can be fatal in sufficient quantities. When chemically combined, these two deadly elements become table salt. What once could kill now keeps us alive. Isn’t chemistry awesome?
Chlorine, element 17, is called a halogen as are all the elements in the 17th row. All halogens have similar chemical properties. They are highly reactive nonmetals, and react easily with most metals. Sodium is a metal, and is bonded with sodium in the table salt used in this lab. Besides being found in salt, chlorine has many uses in our world such as killing bacteria in our water, making plastic, cleaning products, and the list goes on. A very useful chemical, and is among the top ten chemicals produced in the United States. Ever since its discovery in 1774, chlorine has been very useful. It is found in nature in sodium chloride, but in very small concentrations. Seawater, the most abundant source of chlorine, has a concentration of only 19g of chlorine per liter.
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In this lab, we’re going to investigate the wonders of electrochemistry. Electrochemistry became a new branch of chemistry in 1832, founded by Michael Faraday. Michael Faraday is considered the “father of electrochemistry”. The knowledge gained from his work has filtered down to this lab. YOU will be like Michael Faraday. I imagined he would have been overjoyed to do this lab and see the results. You are soooo lucky to be able to take an active part in this experiment. Here’s what you’re going to do…
You will be “creating” metallic copper from a solution of copper sulfate and water, and depositing it on a negative electrode. Copper is one of our more interesting elements. Copper is a metal, and element 29 on your periodic table. It conducts heat and electricity very well.
Many things around you are made of copper. Copper wire is used in electrical wiring. It has been used for centuries in the form of pipes to distribute water and other fluids in homes and in industry. The Statue of Liberty is a wonderful example of how beautiful 180,000 pounds of copper can be. Yes, it is made of copper, and no, it doesn’t look like a penny…..on the surface. The green color is copper oxide, which forms on the surface of copper exposed to air and water. The oxide is formed on the surface and does not attack the bulk of the copper. You could say that copper oxide protects the copper.
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