Monday, May 9, 2016

First Gas Lab! Airbag!

Another Fisher Picture!
This lab cause a ton of stress! Almost my entire weekend was taken up watching the chem group me waiting for the mad rush of ideas as to how to complete this lab. I definitely had an idea as to what I knew I wanted to do but I didn't know how to translate that into math. After figuring out how to use the math and write a procedure, I had to worry about not actually passing the lab because of the bag failing! I was freaking out for most of it not wanting to go first but eventually I did go and it went well! Heres a link to something like the lab!

Gas Laws Quiz!


I am really scared to see how I have done on this quiz. The math I felt was easy, but I got completely mixed up by the concepts on it! I definitely need to go over this quiz with someone who knows more than I do. I just hope that it doesn't completely destroy my grade! I also want to make sure that I don't completely let the encroaching difficulty of this unit snowball my grade into oblivion. Another thing I am worried about getting tripped up on is converting units!

Gas Laws Combined Gas Theory.


This is the most interesting formula we have had since the original of PV/nT. (or as I say pressure and volume on a new table. Its kinda strange, I know, but its still helpful.) This lesson involved the use of PV/T = PV/T. This has the potential to get super complicated which is something I am always worried about. I am also scared about what we have coming at us in the future since we are only about halfway through this unit.

Gas Laws Unit Start!

Delicious Cupcakes!

We start off this unit nice and easy with Charles gas law. P1V1 = P2V2. This unit involves alot of math with equations and a lot of math with concepts to back them up. Hopefully this unit will not get too much harder when it comes to concepts so I won't struggle too much. I always fall behind on the abstract stuff when it comes to chem. Its hard to visualize floating invisible molecules and atoms sometimes.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Phase Changes and Heating / Cooling Curves!



This section of the unit involved lots of graphs. The graphs that show us the supercritical point and when each of the phase changes occur and at what temperature and pressure. This allows us to predict phase changes and at what temperature they will occur and at what pressure. These graphs are called heating/cooling curves.




Friday, April 29, 2016

Energy and Phase Changes Unit Begins!


This unit begins with quite a mathy start. We start with learning about mcΔt, or mcat. This formula is used to figure out how much energy is during a phase change. You can also use the formula -mcΔt = mcΔt, which can be used to determine a missing variable from another equation. Luckily, this appears to be the hardest math in this unit, so hopefully everything else will be easy. 

Boat Competition!



After we made our bio-diesel, the next part of the unit had us make boats to race! The boats were made out of all sorts of things, like cardboard and plastic. We made ours out of a butter/lard container. The sides of the boat were high and it was pretty light. Our team did have some trouble at first trying to get it to work, but eventually we managed to fix all the issues just in time for the race! We came in second place!

How to make a putt putt boat: http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/boat/asembCartonl.html

How to make biodiesel: http://www.make-biodiesel.org/

How to use biodiesel: http://biodiesel.org/using-biodiesel/fuel-quality-guide