Today in class I learned about Combustion Reactions and did an experiment with "making water" as well as learning about general chemistry such as figuring out the atomic structure of the A family elements. The reason why i chose to do this activity was three reasons. One was that it adds a decent chunk of points towards my grade. Another reason is that I love doing science experiments and just watching what happens. The last reason was that this information can be helpful for our motor building project for this 1/4th of the semester.
The concepts necessary to understanding this activity was Chemical Reactions, more specifically the thermodynamics of Chemical Reactions, and just combustion reactions in general.
Experimentation was separated into two parts. The first part was to combine some water with citric acid in a flask. Then we took some magnesium ribbon and put it into the acid water mix. This creates pure hydrogen, and to collect the hydrogen we put a balloon over the flask top.
The second step was to take that hydrogen balloon, put it up to a fire(in this case a candle), and record the reaction. The result was that the balloon exploded as soon as it made direct contact with the flame. This was the desired result and the experiment was successful. The reason why it was successful is because hydrogen gas is extremely flammable and the balloon exploded.
I worked with some of my classmates to observe and blow up the balloon. Overall the group did great. No one did anything bad and they all worked. I think I did fine in this activity. Nothing stand out.
If I could do this again, I would make a larger hydrogen balloon for a bigger explosion. I honestly do not care much about who I work with so almost anyone is cool. I don't see much of a reason to continue this experiment but I wouldn't mind doing it again.
The concepts necessary to understanding this activity was Chemical Reactions, more specifically the thermodynamics of Chemical Reactions, and just combustion reactions in general.
Experimentation was separated into two parts. The first part was to combine some water with citric acid in a flask. Then we took some magnesium ribbon and put it into the acid water mix. This creates pure hydrogen, and to collect the hydrogen we put a balloon over the flask top.
The second step was to take that hydrogen balloon, put it up to a fire(in this case a candle), and record the reaction. The result was that the balloon exploded as soon as it made direct contact with the flame. This was the desired result and the experiment was successful. The reason why it was successful is because hydrogen gas is extremely flammable and the balloon exploded.
I worked with some of my classmates to observe and blow up the balloon. Overall the group did great. No one did anything bad and they all worked. I think I did fine in this activity. Nothing stand out.
If I could do this again, I would make a larger hydrogen balloon for a bigger explosion. I honestly do not care much about who I work with so almost anyone is cool. I don't see much of a reason to continue this experiment but I wouldn't mind doing it again.