Lab day 2

So we came back after the weekend and after doing the calculations my group got Iron (II) Chloride! The color of the liquid was really weird and gross so thats cool. Also the copper was almost like a dried foam texture so that was cool too!

Lab day 1

Today we started the Copper (II) Chloride lab, I passed the pre-lab quiz with no problem. For day one we weighed a baby food jar, some CuCl2 and dissolved it in water to make it aqueous, and a nail. IN the lab the Copper Chloride is supposed to react with the iron nail to make solid copper and Iron (II) or (III) Chloride. Thats the interesting thing about this lab, you can get either one, I'm excited to see our results.

Limiting Reagent

Today we learned about the limiting reagent . I understood this lesson surprisingly well, and this website has a very good simplified explanation of limiting reagent, its crazy to think that we only have a we more days till finals... It scares me a bit...

Stoichiometry Start

So today we started new unit, Stoichiometry. Just from what we are doing right now it doesn't seem all that difficult. I get it but I watched this video for enrichment to make sure that I do understand it. I'm excited for this unit, and more excited for christmas break but finals are in the way of that...

Test

I feel like I did fairly well on the test, I finished very quickly and spent the rest of the time going over the test making sure my answers were correct. Unfortunately I forgot some polyatomics and I'm sure of it so I'm studying those to no end right now, I'm using quizlet to study them. Also I need to make sure I know how to do volume questions as I am still a little shaky on them. Other than that it felt pretty solid! EDIT: I got a 77% so not bad!

Metals Lab

Yesterday we did a metal lab, it was showing us single replacement. It was really cool, we took a metal then added a few drops of a solution then observed the reactions, calcium was a very reactive one, it bubbled and changed colors with every solution. On the opposite end of the spectrum lead reacted with none of the solutions. Cleaning out the well plates proved to be a bit more difficult than anticipated but with a little bit of elbow grease all was well. Our unit test is tomorrow so I'm watching another video on redox to make sure I get it.

Redox

(Yes I realize this is 2 posts the same day but I feel I gave a reasonable argument as to why in my last blog posts here)

So I was absent during this lesson so I'm going off of my neighbors notes and what the internet tells me so I may not be exactly correct. These videos really helped, and the redox reaction wiki page helped too.

Redox is a fancy name for an oxidation reduction reaction, and that's a fancy way of saying an atom is loosing electrons and another is gaining electrons. The anion is being reduced and is gaining an electron, and the cation is loosing an electron and being is oxidized. LEO says GER, Loosing Electron Oxidized, Gaining Electron Reduction. There is synthesis where 2 atoms come together, single replacement where the metal is replaced, decomposition where a compound is split, and combustion is when a hydrocarbon reacts with oxygen gas the products are ALWAYS H2O and CO2. In order for the reaction to occur the charge on the ones that will replace each other must be equal.

Finally Back! (Lab)

I haven't made a blog post in so long! The reason I haven't is because I was sick Tuesday the 24th the last day of school before the long break. That made me miss the redox lesson which you can see my blog post on that here. Anyways I got better on thanksgiving but my computer decided to completely break to the point where I couldn't even turn it on, so no blog post Thursday. Then I went out on Friday and get a great deal on a laptop so thats what I'm making this blog post on. Now to the actual educational part of this blog, we did a double replacement lab in class awhile ago and it was really cool. In the lab we would take 5 drops of one solution then add 5 more drops of another solution and we would observe if a solid was formed. Below are a few pictures I took during the lab and thats all i have for this post!

First Lesson

So we had our first lesson of this unit yesterday it was pretty basic, just balancing chemical equations which is just making sure you don't get numbers messed up. I'm writing this on my phone right now so I'll add links and a picture once I get home on my computer. This unit it seems like we won't be doing as complicated numbers as the last unit, so I'm ecstatic about that.
Links! (Kinda forgot about them.)
Balanced Equation Calculator
Video Explanation

RIP

So we took the unit test yesterday and I don't think I did well, I forgot the chemical of bicarbonate but I'm pretty sure I was able to guess correctly. I don't know how I did there were a lot of questions and I guessed on like the last 6 because I ran out of time. With the last about 10 I just stared going without any re-guard to sig figs and I was able to get an approximate answer which was close to an answer. There was one question about gas conversion I believe, and I had no clue... I'm praying that I did good.

Hydrates and Formula of a Hydrate

On Friday we learned about Hydrates, a hydrate is a compound that contains water as part of its structure it is crystalline structure. The amount of water in a hydrate can be determined by heating all the water out  we did a lab yesterday about hydrates and getting the water out of a hydrate to determine the mass of the anhydrous salt in the compound. The compound that we removed the water from was CuSO4 * xH2O. The amount of water that we found ended up being 5 so its name was Copper (II) Sulfate Pentahydrate it was this really pretty blue crystal that when we heated turned all gray and ashy and it was actually pretty cool.

(This image was supposed to be vertical but after editing

 it and uploading it 6 times I think it wants to be horizontal...)

Dimensional Analysis

(For some odd reason this post didn't publish, the actual post was made 11/2)

So in class we learned about dimensional analysis. It's not too difficult you just have to know the conversion rates for everything then it's pretty straight forward from there. The wiki page for dimensional analysis give a pretty good summary of what exactly it is. I keep getting tripped up on significant digits and what to round to so I looked at the wiki page for significant figures and it helped quite a bit.

Chemical composition pre-test

So we just took the pre test and I was pretty lost on what exactly was going on, there was a string of about 6 questions where I'm pretty sure I got the right answer on but other than that I'm really not sure. It seems like well actually be dealing with chemicals now which I'm excited for but it still seems like there's a lot of math involved which I'm not thrilled about. On my last unit test I got a 75% which isn't a bad score but it certainly isn't the best score you can get, but I'm just happy to get out of that unit, it was pretty confusing to me. I found this link and it explains exactly what a mole is so I have a bit better idea of what was going on in that test but it seems like a whole new thing again, wish me luck...

Measuring Moles

So I started and finished my mole last night. It looks pretty good in my opinion, took about 2 hours longer than I would have liked though. We took our first notes on this section yesterday, we covered an entire chapter in one day which is a little scary to me but it felt like review anyways. Mole day is Friday and I have mine done so I'm done for the week after this I think.

Pre-test Prayers

The pre-test wasn't that difficult, it seems like this unit will be a lot of math however. I felt like I should have know a lot of the stuff on the pre-test but I couldn't remember it. I'm hoping that this unit is a lot of review and a little bit of new learning.

Don't Make Drugs.

So I didn't pass the Aspirin lab pre-quiz, which is no big deal. However I'm a little bit upset because the reason I failed was because I wrote remaining, instead of excess, I'm pretty sure that those are synonyms but what ever. Our second question was more of a statement than a question also so... yeah... I'm a little upset about it. Anyways here is the day 2 set up of the aspirin lab because I have the picture.

Aspirin Lab Day 1

We are starting our aspirin lab on Monday, I'm in the second group so I wont actually start till Wednesday. I am worried about passing the pre-lab quiz as only a few groups passed. She showed us the setup for the first day of the lab and it seems very confusing. I really hope that I am able to pass so I can do the ab because it seems like it would be very interesting.

Test, and the stars

So we took a test in class and I forgot to study the night before because I was out. However I felt that I did pretty good on it for not knowing about it, I finished my star project too, I kept procrastinating it because I though it would be really hard but I actually worked on it and I was finished within 2 hours. I am curious to see what out next project and lesson will be. This website really sped things up for me as it has all the chemical spectrum's there so I didn't have to search them all individually.

Half Lives

Today we learned about half lives and how they work. I thought that actually half of the atom was just decaying, but its only the amount of time it takes for the atoms to decay into stability, so there is no loss of mass. To help show this concept, we began to work on a half live lab. In the lab you cut out 567 squares then put them in a cup, dump the squares, and any that are on the colored side have "decayed" and are removed.

Beanium Lab

A few days ago in class we did a lab, this labs point was to show that atoms can have different masses in the form of isotopes, and it was supposed to teach us the atomic mass average formula. The formula is [(Mass)(Percent)]+[(Mass)(Percent)] for as many different isotopes as you have.

Atomic Structure and Radioactivity #2

We just learned about alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, I'm really confused.

I just found this table and it helps me a lot, I also googled some information about them and I now get that alpha particle radiation makes 2 protons lost from the atom and an overall 4 change in mass. Beta particle radiation make the proton count of the atom increase by one, and finally gamma rays don't change anything.  

Atomic Structure and Radioactivity Pre-test Reflection

So I just took the pre-test for unit 2 and I didn't know anything on there, I remembered a little about radioactive half lives but not much. I am excited but nervous about this unit, I don't think it will be easy but I also don't want it to be so hard to the point where I don't get it.

Nomenclature Reflection #2

I really understand nomenclature now I feel, I have done well on the past few tests and I think I finally get it. I lost my mastery on one section of nomenclature, however I regained it so I think it was just a mess up on my part and got the questions wrong. I am excited and ready for the next unit.

Nomenclature Reflection #1

At the beginning of this unit I was very confused and worried, I had taken a chemistry class in 8th grade and did horribly in it, so starting this I was prepared fir the worst. Then after about the first week I knew what I needed to and was doing very well on the tests, I'm not sure if it was just the teacher back then or I just get it now but I'm doing very well!

Frontier Chemistry Project

Frontier Chemistry Project

Introduction

Hi my name is Ian and welcome to my Chemistry Blog. This is where I will be posting the projects that we do in this class and also things that we do. I am a sophomore and I play soccer for the school, I also enjoy photography.