Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Vitamin C Lab

This lab consisted of determining the vitamin C content of different juices. We got samples of pear, grapefruit, V8, and apple juices and compared these juices' vitamin C content to that of a standard solution. We used iodine as a indicator and dropped iodine into the juice samples until the juices turned blue. The grapefruit turned out to have the most vitamin C content, and the pear had the lowest vitamin C content.

Making the standard solution
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Lab set-up
                             
Adding drops of iodine to juice sample
                             

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Hydrogen Peroxide Lab

Today we did the hydrogen peroxide "lab". We were not able to do the actual lab part of it and got data to calculate instead. We had to calculate the masses of the potassium permanganate and hydrogen peroxide solutions used and used that data to do a stoichiometry problem with molarity. It was a helpful practice with molarity and stoichiometry especially since I have been absent for the past few days. Lastly, we had to calculate a mass percent of the hydrogen peroxide using our data from previous calculations, and we learned about how hydrogen peroxide decomposes in light causing an inaccurate advertised percentage on the bottle.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Dilution Lab

Lab set-up


Lindsi measuring the water
                                        
In this lab we had to practice calculating serial dilutions through diluting food coloring in water. First we started with a solution with ten drops of food coloring then gave it a series of dilutions until it became clear again. It took six dilutions to bring the solution back to clear. I found that the color gradient in the end looked really neat. It was a helpful practice in calculating dilutions.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

It Will Get Better

Today we had a quiz over the unit so far, and honestly I cannot tell you at this moment what this unit is about. Coming back from break has really messed me up, and the fact that I cannot explain to you what exactly we are doing in this unit should show how well I understand the material. The quiz today was... rough. I know that the quiz itself was not the most challenging one we took all year, but because I am still so shaky on these concepts, I was not able to confidently answer as many questions as I would have liked to. I vaguely remember dilution questions and some things about molarity, but a lot of times after quizzes my mind just deletes that small 55-minute portion of my life taking that quiz and I forget everything I had just done. This unit is turning out to be a bit more difficult than usual because I'm still on vacation mode. Oh well, it will get better... hopefully.

Helpful Study Links:

Monday, January 11, 2016

Solution To Dilutions


We started the new unit, Aqueous Solutions, recently and the first formula we learned about was M1V1=M2V2. It is a concept that is pretty easy to grasp once you get the algebra down and are able to identify which part of the problem coincides with which part of the formula. So far, the unit is going well and I am excited to have another math-based unit.

Solution to Dilution Video

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