De San Jose, Trisha Gayle T.

Module 7 Post Task

How to ACE your AP Chemistry

Experimentations
By Trisha Gayle De San Jose

Running an experiment without a hypothesis is like starting a road trip just for the sake of driving, without
thinking about where you’re headed and why. You’ll inevitably end up somewhere, but there’s a chance
you might not have gained anything from the experience.

“If you can’t state your reason for running a test, then you probably need to examine why and what you
are testing.”

—Brian Schmitt, Conversion Optimization Consultant, CROmetrics

Creating a hypothesis is an essential step of running experiments. Although you can set up and execute

an experiment without one, we’d strongly advise against it. We’d even argue that a strong hypothesis is
as important as understanding the statistical significance of your results.

“Hypothesis Defined”
Hypothesis is defined as the scientific guess accompanied by
the principles governing the laws of chemistry, physics, and
biology. A hypothesis is something more than a wild guess but
less than a well-established theory. It is an idea or explanation
that you then test through study and experimentation.
Presented below are the following tests that can duly explained
the principles of experiments with regards to solubility,
flammability, and conductivity.
FLAMMABILITY TEST USING METHYL ALCOHOL

DISCUSSION
Methanol is an alcohol similar to ethanol, it is incredibly dangerous in large quantities. While
methanol does form in small amounts during fermentation and is fine to consume in things like
commercially produced wine or beer, the concentration you find in things like home brewed gin, rum and
other spirits can poison you. Unlike ethanol, when consumed, methanol in the human body is converted
into formic acid.

The flammability test of methyl alcohol must be done in a well-ventilated area. Remove all
flammable materials from the demonstration area. The demonstration must be done on a heat-resistant
surface. If the laboratory is not well-ventilated and the methyl alcohol sits in the Petri dish for a few
minutes, methyl alcohol vapors can accumulate and lead to a small flash fire.

In this flammability test, it can be noticed that each metal salt emits a distinctive color of light.
When the light of any of these flame tests is passed through a prism or viewed through a diffraction
grating, a spectrum is formed that contains only a few colors at specific wavelengths, including the colors
seen in the original flame. Every element emits a characteristic wavelength of light. Just as a fingerprint is
unique to each person, the color of light emitted after excitation of an element is unique to that element.

The unique color emitted by the salt metals when extinguished by the methyl alcohol flame test
will be evident. All flames will start out blue in color or invisible but will change to the color characteristic of
the metal salts as they dissolve and the methyl alcohol burns off (strontium = orange, sodium = yellow,
potassium = violet or purple, lithium = red, copper = green).

Wear chemical splash goggles, chemical-resistant gloves, and a chemical-resistant apron. All
persons viewing the demonstration should also wear goggles. It must be noted that pre-cautions and
safety must be done accordingly since methyl alcohol will be vaporized rapidly and can accumulate a
flash fire within the demonstration area.

CHARRING TEST
DISCUSSION
In determining an organic compound from the inorganic ones, a charring test was made to
confirm the presence of carbon in every compound being tested, which were sugar, leaf, plastic,
aluminum foil, starch, sand, salt, denatured alcohol and oleic acid. In finding out the composition of most
organic compounds, various tests were made to confirm the presence of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
sulfur, phosphorus and halogens in it.
 One of the most spectacular chemistry demonstrations is also one of the simplest. It's the
dehydration of sugar (sucrose) with sulfuric acid. Charring of sugar is a chemical process of incomplete
combustion of sugar when subjected to high heat. It is a chemical change as it cannot be reversed. When
sugar is continuously heated in a dish, then it starts evaporating and becomes foggy due to water vapor.
The sulfuric acid removes water from the sugar in a highly exothermic reaction, releasing heat, steam,
and sulfur oxide fumes. Aside from the sulfurous odor, the reaction smells a lot like caramel. The white
sugar turns into a black carbonized tube that pushes itself out of the beaker. A black powdery substance
is left behind, which is charcoal.

Main target in this experiment is to be acquainted with the properties and composition of most
organic compounds. These properties are solubility, volatility, combustibility, conductivity, and rates of
reaction. Wear chemical splash goggles, chemical-resistant gloves, and a chemical-resistant apron. All
persons viewing the demonstration should also wear goggles. It must be noted that pre-cautions and
safety must be done accordingly because it can accumulate a flash fire within the demonstration area.

SOLUBILITY TEST
DISCUSSION
Solubility is defined as the relative ability or potential of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances to
be dissolved in solvent forming a solution. Fundamentally, it depends on the properties and
characteristics of the solvent involved, polarity of the involved solute and solvent, pressure, and
temperature. In advanced lectures, there are insolubility involved which utilizes the concept of
Crystallization and Precipitation in solutions in which it obeys the solubility chart.

The solubility of a substance in a particular solvent is measured by the concentration. A solution

is considered as unsaturated solution, when solute particles are added to a solvent in which it is soluble,
solute particles leave the surface of the solid and become solvated by the solvent. A solution is
considered saturated when adding additional solute no longer increases the concentration of the solution.
A solution is considered to be a supersaturated solution wherein it can usually be formed from a saturated
solution by filtering off the excess solute and lowering the temperature. On the other hand, when an
excess of the solute is added to a supersaturated solution, solute particles leave the solution and form a
crystalline precipitate. There are factors that affect the solubility of substances in a given available
variables and solvent in a particular situation.

Temperature. The solubility of a given solute in a given solvent typically depends on temperature. It also
depends on the composition of matter as it corresponds to breakage of bonds involved whether in an
ionic or covalent bonding. Generally, solubility is directly proportional with increasing temperature due to
the breakage of bonds.

Polarity. One major factor that affects the solubility is the rule of polarity. As one of the major norms in
chemistry, like dissolves like. It states that substances with polar molecules will generally dissolve in a
polar substance. On the other hand, polar molecules will not dissolve in non-polar molecules. Polar
substances are often found in substances or compounds with ionic bonding within like Water molecule.
Non-polar substances are typically found in organic substances because they exhibit covalent bonding
within.

The solubility degree of the substances widely depends on certain conditions , from infinitely soluble (fully
miscible), such as ethanol in water, to poorly soluble, such as oil in water. The term “insoluble” is often
applied to poorly soluble compounds.

CONDUCTIVITY TEST
DISCUSSION

Electrical conductivity of substances is based on the flow of electrons. Metals are good
conductors of electricity because they allow electrons to flow through the entire piece of material. Thus,
electrons flow like a “sea of electrons” through metals.
The conductivity of substances is mainly determined by measuring how fast and easy an electric current
flow between the probe into the bulb, which is demonstrated in the experiment on the video. Dissolved
salts in solution will be attracted to the plate with the opposite charge. In many probes, a four-electrode
cell is used. Two of the electrodes measure the current of the solution, while the other two electrodes
maintain a constant current between them and are used as a reference.

 In comparison, distilled water is a very poor conductor of electricity since very little electricity
flows through water. Highly ionized substances are strong electrolytes. Strong acids and salts are strong
electrolytes because they completely ionize, dissociate, and separate in a solution. The ions carry the
electric charge through the solution thus creating an electric current.