Chemistry
Provide a brief overview of your experience. How will you remember this? What do you want others to feel or think when they look at your lava lamp? The first week of the mini project, I wasn't really sure how we were going to start and what exactly the science behind everything was. I just knew our first step was to draw out a lava lamp. Once we did that, we went and asked people for critique. We got comments saying we should figure out a way to make the light bulb more stable in the base, make it a bit shorter, and that we should glue the base to the glass. We took those comments and then we redrew it. Once we got that done, we got all the materials. We used a can from Vons for the base and a glass italian soda bottle. Once we started putting everything together we realized we needed a bottom for the can so that the light bulb can stay upright. If it was loose and moving around in the base it wouldn't heat the lamp properly. We bought another a can with the same diameter as the previous one but with a smaller height. This time we just took the top off, ate what was inside and kept the bottom. We stuck those together, taped the light bulb to the bottom and taped the glass on to the top of the bigger can. Then we added Sharpie to the benzyl alcohol and added that to the regular water that filled the glass. The benzyl alcohol looked really weird when we added the salt water. It looked just like colored water but when it moved around it moved more slowly and sluggishly. This whole process took a bit longer than I thought it would because we had a few issues, like not having a base or not knowing how much salt to add in to the water to make it just right. In the end however, I will remember this as a success even though it didn't really turn out exactly as I thought it would. We did everything we could to make it work. When people first see the lava lamp I want them to see the time we put in and to think its cool even though it doesn't look more like a traditional lava lamp. Since it is cool that the benzyl alcohol acts that way. Any necessary terms and concepts. Density, hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules, and coefficient of expansion. Looking Back: When we first turned on the lava lamp, we were adding salt as it was heating up so it didn't work very well. Once we let it cool and came back the next day after adding some salt it slowly rose. The first few times the big blob of lava only rose halfway and fell back down. Then we added some more salt and eventually the one big blob went all the way up and fell back down. It didn't move like "lava" like I thought it would, it was just one blob and a bunch of little bubbles that moved around. Even after we added springs so the lava would separate, it continued to move as one. It didn't work because the whole blob was a liquid so it just stuck back together. We did our best to make it work. Looking Beyond: The sharpie mixed with the benzyl alcohol because they were both hydrophobic and doesn't mix with the water. Some chemicals in the sharpie were hydrophilic that mixed with the water when we added it in. Since the lava is hydrophobic it stayed separated from the water. We added salt to the water to make the density levels really close to the lava so it was a bit less than the amount to make the lava rise. Once we added enough salt we heated it up which made the molecules in the lava separate a bit more which made it, less dense making it rise (thermal expansion). It cooled as it got to the top which makes it go back down. One of the questions that came up during the experiment is why it the lava moves in that motion or why it made the little bubbles of lava rather than the big blobs, I didn't look further into why it works that way because it was hard to find specific information. Looking inward: We didn't really get the results I thought we would, but it was still a cool experience. I think the results were undesirable because the benzyl alcohol couldn't separate itself very well. We did everything we could to make it work but the way the lava separated was out of our control. It worked the best it could because we were really careful with everything we were doing. We followed what Andrew said and we tried to get everything right. I thought I performed well in this project because I did what I was suppose to and it was fun. Looking outward: I worked with Sammie and Annika. I thought our group performed really well. There was only one day when we couldn't get much done because we each already did a worksheet and we couldn't work with the chemicals yet. Besides that day, we worked at a good pace, getting the lava lamp done at a good time. We listened to what we had to do and we all contributed something. We each helped with each step, like building the base, getting materials and putting everything together. I helped put everything in the lamp in, taking pictures and building the base. Looking Forward: If I could do this again, I might change what we used for the chemicals. Like Andrew said with mineral oil and coconut oil for the lava and water and isopropyl alcohol for the liquid. I don't have any specific people in mind to work on another lab with. I liked the people from out past labs. I could continue this lab by making the lava work a bit better and learn more on the science of the lamp. I would continue to improve our lava lamp. Take aways: I learned that there's a specific way to pour something and that things won't always turn out perfectly no matter how well you follow instructions. And that there's always space to improve and experiment. I also learned of the responsibility required with all the freedom we're given to get our work done. Purpose: We learned about the transitions between the different phases, such as sublimation and deposition. With dry ice (CO2 when it's solid) we can learn more about that because we can see it happening in front of our eyes. We also learned about the molecules in those phases and the room between them, and we used dry ice to see the distance expand between the molecules in each phase. We also learned how math can be used in science an that they're not two completely different subjects. Looking Back: We had to do two main experiments which were take a piece of dry ice and put it in to a beaker of water and put a small piece of dry ice in to a balloon. With the first we can see the molecules in the dry ice become farther a part to create a gas and with the second one we can see a solid turn straight in to a gas to fill the balloon. The First Experiment: For the first experiment we just took a piece of dry ice that was roughly a cm in diameter and put it in to a small beaker of water. I was weary of touching the dry ice because I'd been told in the past it would "burn" your hands but it was also exciting being able to do something I wasn't allowed to do as a kid. I barely touched it, passing it around the table but it was still fun. I didn't really know how the water was going to change and I was really surprised when it started to bubble like it was boiling around the dry ice and start to become a gas. It produced around 10 cm worth of gas above the water. The first experiment was successful, the dry ice in the water became a gas. The Second Experiment: For the second experiment we took a balloon and a piece of dry ice that was around 2 cm wide. We put it in to the balloon, careful to not hold the dry ice too long or freeze the person holding the balloon open. We closed it off and Sammie shook the balloon until it all fully became a gas. It took a really long time because we used a piece of dry ice that was bigger than what Andrew told us to use but it did slowly inflate. You could feel the dry ice in the balloon and it still hurt when you touched it for too long. In the end, it was successful and the 2 cm wide piece of ice became a 17.78 cm wide balloon. We also learned about the math behind this. You take the radius of the CO2. Find the volume by plugging it in to this equation: 4/3 πr^3. You find the ratio by doing volume of solid CO2/volume of solid CO2 : volume of gaseous CO2 / volume of solid CO2. In this case the radius was 2 cm, we plug it in, get 33.5 as the volume of solid CO2. Then plug in the radius of the gas to get 23,485.3239. Then we find the ratio: 33.5/33.5: 23,485.3239/33.5= 1: 701.0504. So for every 1 cm of solid you get 701 cm of gas. While the balloon from the second experiment was inflating we tried to do a lot of other things with the dry ice. We took a beaker with dry ice and water and Ash tried to blow a bubble on top of it. When the bubble landed on the beaker, the gas coming out filled the bubble, which eventually popped. Then we got some bubble soap and just put a piece of dry ice inside. Nothing really happened except gas started flowing out but then we added a bit of water to the soap and a bunch of little bubbles started flowing out. It was so weird how it changed from gas to bubbles filled with the gas. We got a bigger beaker and filled it with the water and dry ice again, and a little bit of soap instead of the other way around. That created white bubbles that sat on top of the water that quickly filled the beaker. It was amazing how endless it seemed. Every time I tried to grab some dry ice to add to water, I freaked out dropped it. Fortunately, my group mates didn't share my concerns and we were able to get what we wanted done. After a while, Melany thought it would be cool if we the bubbles could be a different color. She tried putting the food coloring straight in to the beaker but the bubbles that kept coming out pushed the dye out. She then got a beaker filled it with water and the dye and put that in to the beaker. The dye did go all the way in but the bubbles remained the same. The last experiment we did was we took dry ice, put it in to a beaker with water and then went and put a balloon on top. We saw another group do this and it seemed cool so we tried it out too. This way, the balloon filled much quicker than the second experiment. There was so much we could do with dry ice, so I enjoyed this lab a lot. Looking Beyond: On a molecular level, since dry ice doesn't melt, under atmospheric pressure it becomes a gas. When it becomes a gas its called sublimation since it doesn't become a liquid first. When we put it in to water, it created cold little bubbles of CO2 that when it hit the air above the water, it created a visible fog. And when that gas is in the bubble soap, the soap surrounds the gas and becomes bubbles. The temperature makes the molecules grow farther apart which results in gas. There were a lot of questions that were in my head during the lab. Why does dry ice not melt? What happens when it's not under atmospheric pressure? How do molecules become farther apart? And so on. I didn't do much investigating for more of the science behind this but I did google why dry ice reacts the way it does in water. Looking Inwards: I thought for the most part we did get desirable results because when we were trying out new things we didn't know exactly what we were looking for, we just wanted to know what would happen and how things would react. The only experiment that didn't really work was when we added food coloring to the bubbling dry ice. I thought it didn't work because the gas in the bubbles were coming from the dry ice, which is white, rather than the water. I thought I performed well because nothing went wrong and I didn't get frostbite. Looking Outward: I worked with Sammie, Annika, Ash, Melany, and Natalie on this lab. I thought this lab went really well. We didn't make a huge mess, and whatever we did make we cleaned up. We talked to each other and worked collaboratively on each experiment we tried. We didn't try to hurt each other with the dry ice and we were very careful. I contributed to this group by helping a bit with each experiment, cleaning up, and taking pictures. Looking Forward: Maybe look more in to why the food coloring didn't work and learn from our mistakes. I would also probably not be so scared of the dry ice and to actually try to touch it for a little bit longer. Besides that I think we did a lot of experiments and learned a lot from each one. I would work with the same people because we all work really well together. There's probably endless possibilities to see how dry ice reacts to things, and how dry ice is actually made. If I were to continue I would learn more about the different phases of dry ice. I think I would continue to explore this and learn more about it. Take Aways: I learned the mathematical equation to find the solid to gas ratio for carbon dioxide. Which tells us how far apart the molecules get when solids become a gas. I learned more about sublimation and how it works. I got more deep in to matter and the different phases. How to experiment and get creative to learn more about something. And how to handle labs that are a bit more dangerous. The Purpose: Before our lab, we were learning about the three basic phases of matter, solid, gas and liquid. The purpose of this lab was to learn more about the different phases and to get a feel of what doing labs will be like. Oobleck was a good choice to learn more about matter because it changes between two different phases right in your hands. Looking Back: Our experiment turned out pretty well since it was just mixing cornstarch and water together. When we added enough water it became this weird slimy blob. The mixture itself looked really clumpy at first but as we added more it became more a thick liquid. I had done this experiment before in elementary school but back then I had no idea what was going on and it was just cool to touch. This time though, there was more background and I actually realized how weird oobleck is. It's not really a liquid or a solid. When we first mixed the cornstarch fully with water it didn't really make the consistency we wanted, there were large clumps of dry cornstarch and just water around it. We were afraid to add too much water because Andrew told us that we needed to add just enough to get the right consistency. Every time Ash added a bit of water everyone at our table would be like "Okay! Okay! That's enough! Stop!" panicking at the thought we might ruin it. After we repeated that we finally got something that seemed right. It just felt like a thick liquid but then Bradon came over with a hammer and smashed the what I thought seemed like a liquid. The strangest thing was it didn't react like one. It didn't make a huge splash all over our table it just stiffened beneath the hammer and Bradon removed the hammer without any oobleck sticking to it. The oobleck also didn't make as big of a mess as I thought it would. When we were playing with it we kept dripping it all over the table and we kept reprimanding each other to be careful and to not make such a big mess. Then Andrew came over and just quickly swiped off everything on the table and let it flow all back in to the bowl. There was of course drops left on the table but it wasn't that big of a mess anymore. Whenever pressure was applied it seemed like it reacted more like a solid but when you just let it be, it acted more like a liquid. Doing it at this age, rather then as an 9 year old was much more enjoyable and interesting. While I was doing this experiment I was constantly questioning what was happening rather than just playing with it. It was a fun first experiment. Looking Beyond: I had a lot of questions while we were doing the experiment. The basic "Why and how does it do that? " and "What's in cornstarch that makes it react that way to water?" and of course " Is it a solid or liquid?". On a molecular level it seems like when we push the mixture together, by adding pressure, it forces the molecules together, decreasing the distance, making it more solid. While letting it flow out, gives room and time for the molecules to move around freely and stay as a liquid. So when Bradon struck the oobleck with the hammer, the sudden force pushed the molecules in the oobleck together to make it a solid. So I thought that oobleck was initially was a liquid but just became a solid when pressure was applied. Looking Inward: We were able to get desirable results. The mixture didn't have too much water or cornstarch so it reacted exactly as it was suppose to. I think we were able to get these results because we were really careful about everything. We didn't want to mess it up so we did the whole process very slowly and carefully. I thought I preformed well because everything went well and I didn't mess it up. Looking Outward: I worked with: Melany, Ash, Sammie, Natalie and Annika. I thought our whole group worked really well together, and we were on the same page throughout the whole experiment. Everyone helped with each step and we communicated with each other if one of us was making a mess or when we thought it was a good time to clean up. I contributed with the mixing and the clean up. Everything in between we were just doing on our own, just playing with the oobleck. Looking Forward: I don't think I would change anything if I did this lab again. Maybe, experiment more and see how different forces affect the oobleck but, from what we already did we know plenty because it was very straightforward. I liked the group I had so I would work with them again. I'm not sure if there's a way to continue this specific lab, you could go more in depth with how the mixture gets affected by pressure but I don't think I would keep going. Take Aways: This lab was good experience on how to act and the whole procedure of doing a lab. I learned more about matter and the different phases. How matter transitions from one phase to another. |
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October 2015
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