Experiment Hunting

[P-man]

I am on the hunt for basic chemistry experiments to post on my website. Any contributions well appreciated.

[sergey500]

Depends what you want. Go mix salt with water and put a 9v battery in it. Bubbles!!! and there is no point to explain why this happens, i can assume your intillegent enough understand. What experiment do you have in mind?

[P-man]

I just want tons of experiments to p[ost on my website. It doesn't matter what type.

[sergey500]

Unfortunatly i prefer expirement that explode, and the titles say "...please no bombs. Too bad. Well here is some that won't kill you but fun to watch, not to mention wasteful. Learned it fromm video.google.com mix drop a minto into a diet coke (i think norma coke works fine), stand back and watch the foutain of coke shoot 5 feet in air.

 

Or did you have more complex and chemical made experiments in mind? I can give you plenty.

[P-man]

Anything. From complicated ones to kitchen experiments, I'll take anything.

[Vending]

well, as far as quite simple goes, you could take the juice from a red cabbage and then add acids (like lemon juice) and bases (like milk, i belive or soap) back and forth and watch the color change.

 

there is always the classic, bking soda + vinigar experiment.

 

hmmm....and then there is alway baking. Baking a cake has some really cool chemistry in it (crosslinking of proteins), AND it tastes delicious.

[TheBigDog]

Try this for a cool experiment. Run the video when you get to the site.

 

http://www.eepybird.com/

 

The wonder of Diet Coke and Mentos... Very cool!

 

Bill

[anglepose]

That movie is totaly awsome!!!!!!!!!!

 

heres a good experiment to make sparkles get a wooden stick dip it in pva then roll it around in a tub of iron fillings set alight to it and you have a sparkler :cup: i would say how to make back yard fire works but im not allowed

[UncleAl]

The exciting: Tris(hydrazino)nickel(II) nitrate, Ni(NH2-NH2)3(NO3)2

 

To a saturated Ni(NO3)2 solution in water add twice the volume of ethanol

(green solution). 50:50 hydrazine hydrate in ethanol. Drip the nickel solution into the hydrazine solution with brisk magnetic stirring.

 

Deep blue flocks break under the agitation and turn pale pink. Mild exotherm. Filter the bulky precipitate. Wash with cold distilled water, then ethanol. Dry in air.

 

Reasonably shock-insensitive. Deflagrates with flame. Detonates with confinement - 7 km/sec or 22,960 ft/sec.

 

 

 

The cute: Photoreduction of benzophenone to benzopinacol.

 

In a 125 ml round bottom flask dissolve 10 g of benzophenone in 70 ml of anhydrous isopropanol with warming. Add one drop of glacial acetic acid. Fill the hot flask to the neck with more isopropanol.

 

Firmly stopper, then wire or vinyl electrical tape the stopper in place - do not occlude the round bottom! The flask must be sealed warm. If it is sealed cold and warms in sunlight, expanding liquid will burst it.

 

Invert the flask then expose to sunlight for a week or more. Abundant crystals of benzopinacol grow as the benzophenone is one-electron reduced and dimerizes.

[Mercedes Benzene]

You could go with the classic flame tests....

Get aqueous solutions of various metallic salts and burn them in a bunsen burner on a wire loop or wooden splint.

 

This is a classic and beautiful demonstration of electron energy levels and the atomic spectrum.

[Mercedes Benzene]

By the way: UncleAl, is there any place that we can get all those nifty chemicals that you mentioned in your last post? That is... without working in a laboratory?:love:

[UncleAl]

Homeland Severity, the EPA, Haz-Mat... Say "no."

 

http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/homesec.jpg

 

Jackbooted State compassion wll crush a society like a huge soft hand with bones of ancient stone pressing down until blood flows.

[pgrmdave]

Has anybody else ever noticed that some of UncleAl's posts seem like those random spam e-mails? :hihi:

[CerebralEcstasy]

This particular site has a drop down menu of all sorts of experiments directed towards children.

 

http://members.ozemail.com.au/[email protected]/scifun/miniexp.htm

 

http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_home.html

 

Not sure if you're looking for such elementary experiments........but there they are just the same.

[hallenrm]

I suppose that you do not know that dealing with chemicals is often considered dangerous. Kids after all do not really know how to handle chemicals.

 

I have lots of ideas and suggestions but would not offer them unless I know the kind of website you have launched or launching.

[Michaelangelica]

I suppose that you do not know that dealing with chemicals is often considered dangerous. Kids after all do not really know how to handle chemicals..

 

What do you mean!

I made lots of interesting things when I was 12. Like gunpowder. I blew up the ant's nests with it (I hated ants) and made my own firecrackers.

For some strange reason I was thrown out of chemisty classes whan I was 14.

Funny that.

[CerebralEcstasy]

Experiment: Bomb Calorimetry

 

 

 

The heat change associated with the combustion of a compound, such as CwHxNyOz , is measured with a bomb calormeter.

 

CwHxNyOz (s) + ( 2w + x/2 - z)/2 O2 (g) — › w CO2 (g) + x/2 H2O (l) + y/2 N2 (g)

The experimental procedure used to acquire the heat change is illustrated in the JAVA applet below. Select a compound (benzoic acid, glycine, naphthalene, oxalic acid, and sucrose) to be burned, enter the weight of the sample of the selected compound, and click the "Start" button. When the "Ignite" button appears, click the button to initiate the combustion reaction. Record the intial and final temperatures of the calorimeter. See the Tutorial for Experiment: Bomb Calorimetry for an example and help.

 

Compound Chemical Formula Molar Mass (g/mole) benzoic acid C7H6O2 122.12 glycine C2H5NO2 75.07 naphthalene C10H8 128.17 oxalic acid C2H2O4 90.04 sucrose C12H22O11 342.30

 

Place a 3.300 g sample of benzoic acid in the bomb. After the calorimeter is assembled, ignite the sample and record the initial and final temperatures.

1. 
   
2. If DEcomb = -26.43 kJ/g for benzoic acid , how much heat will be produced when 3.300 g of benzoic acid are burned in the calorimeter?
   
3. Why does the temperature of the water in the bucket rise?
   
4. If the specific heat capacity of water is 4.180 J/g-oC, how much heat did the 2000 g of water absorb?
   
5. Why is the amount of heat absorbed by the water not equal to the amount of heat produced from the combustion of the 3.300 g sample of benzoic acid?
   
6. Calculate the heat capacity of the calorimeter, Ccalor. See the lecture notes for help.

If you have preformed all of the experiments, answered all of the questions above, and completed this section of the report to be submitted for credit, then you may check the Answers to the First Set of Questions

 

 

Place a 2.000 g sample of naphthalene in the bomb. After the calorimeter is assembled, ignite the sample and record the initial and final temperatures.

1. 
   
2. How much heat is produced when the 2.000 g sample of naphthalene is burned?
   
3. Calculate DEocomb for the combustion of 1.00 mole of naphthalene.
   
4. Calculate DHocomb for the combustion of 1.00 mole of naphthalene. See the lecture notes for help.
   
5. Calculate DHof for naphthalene. See the lecture notes for help.

I did a similar type of experiment through a course via correspondence, in my kitchen. My children 8 and 6 at the time were there with me watching what I was doing, and listening to me explain what I was doing.

 

 

While obviously I would NEVER suggest that a child should do this experiment on their own, I think it was a great experience for my children. Even though their understanding was limited.

 

We've done all sorts of science experiments, it allows me to express my love of learning/teaching and engage their interest as well.

Plus, as a result of this.......they have bragging rights in the neighbourhood and I get to hear "Man, I wish I had YOUR Mom, SHE'S COOL".