Chem Blog Week 6

This week, we learned about the motion of particles in solids, liquids, and gases, how energy and heat affect the motion of particles, and the different motions of particles and thanks to Eureka! and Mr. Abud I came to enjoy the dancing of the "little lumps". First, we learned about the different motions of particles. There are three types : translational motion, rotational motion, and vibrational motion. Translational motion is the motion of particles moving side to side. Rotational motion is the motion of particles moving from one point around and back to its initial point just like a ball would.Vibrational motion is the motion of particles moving through particles. Mr. Abud brought out  a block of dry ice and showed us that the ice was turning into steam immediately. This introduced sublimation. Sublimation is the process of matter turning from a solid to a gas without turning into a liquid. After showing us this, Mr. Abud told our groups to draw particle diagrams of what the particles would look like before and after. All of our diagrams looked the same but we did not know how to show movement. We came to the conclusion that our "whoosies" would be arrows and that the length of the arow would represent the speed of the particles. We were also reintroduced to vocabulary such as  rigid, meaning that they hold their own form and shape, and fluidity, meaning that the particles have more ability to flow and move. Liquids and gases are fluid. A liquid cannot hold its own shape except when it holds the shape of the container it's in.Gases move faster than liquids and move greater distances.The motion of the particles in these three states of matter vary because of how heat affects the motion of these particles. Heat is a form of energy transfered through heating.  Heat makes the particles move faster, therefore making a substance more less viscous, meaning that the particles become less resistant to move. The more heat the substances have, the more energy they  receive to put the particles in motion. Therefore, if solid, liquid, and gas particles are heated, then the particles move faster with greater energy at greater distances at this rate with greater energy. Also, what affects the motion of particles is temperature. Temperature is the measurement of the average amount of energy for all particles in a system. This means that the greater the temperature, the greater the amount of heat and energy. So, a greater temperature gives more heat and energy for the particles in any state of matter to move faster. The relationship between these three states of matter is that since the motion of their particles vary, their densities will too. Since a solid is rigid and the particles stay closer together they have the greatest density since the space between the particles is less than that of liquids and gases. Liquids, though, have lesser densities than solids, but densities greater than gases. Since the motion of the particles in a liquid are quicker and the particles move in different directions, the space between them is greater, therefore, the density is lesser. Gases have the least density because the space between their particles is the greatest since the particles can move faster than the particles of a solid and liquid. Although it seems very complicated written out, I understand it easily! This week was pretty fun and I got many of the questions I was asking myslef on monday answered. Except one... Where in the world did Mr. Abud buy dry ice???

Chem Blog Week 5

This week in chemistry was the most fun. We began the week by being introduced to our next experiment. Mr. Abud told us that our task was to find the density of two students. We also had to find out if boys had more volumes or if girls had more density. We began planning our experiment with a program on google drive that aloud the class to edit and contribute to the planning on our cell phones. When planning on how to find the students' densities my mind went quickly to the experiment we did last week with the Starbursts. We used water displacement to find the volume of the Starbursts so I knew that we could do it with people. The only problem was what we were going to measure them in. While planning, many kids came up with different ideas to use water displacement. I was stumped because I was trying to think of an object that to act as a graduated cylinder and fit a person in. We were atuck on the idea to use a pool and someone even said to use a hot tub! But then Mr. Abud went into the closet and came out with  a garbage can. We all saw this as a good idea because we knew that the can would be able to find the volume of the student using water displacement because we also knew how much the garbage can could also contain the student. We then added that in order to find their mass we needed something to collect the water lost from the garbage can so we decided that we would use a kiddie pool to surround the can. We were then ready for the experiment. The next day we the experiment and I was very excited. We began to prepare the experiment by filling the garbage  can with water with the shower in the classroom. We filled the shower to the brim and were told the can had 44 mL inside. With the garbage can in the kiddie pool. We put in the first person. But because it was our first trial not everything was perfect. Instead of slowly placing him inside the can they kind of dropped them in which made alot of the water go outside of the pool and onto the floor which messed of the data a bit. We then collected the water that was still inside the pool with 2 liter bottles and placed them on the table to be counted . I was very proud of our class because we worked together well from cleaning up the water to collecting the water. When we collected and wrote down the amount of water we went on to the next student. We used the water that we collected from the previous person and replaced the rest of the water with the shower. Because we learned to place the person in the water slower we were able to collect the water easier and without the mess. We found her volume and wrote it down and we also calculated their density because we also knew their weight we converted into kilograms. I really enjoyed this experiment and this past week and I hope that we do more of these types of experiments more!  

Chem Blog Week 4

Every week in chemistry we learn something new, however everything I learned got applied to what I learned in the past and my past information became so much clearer. This week, we did an experiment using candy of all things. While I am not a particular “sweets person” I was intrigued with what Mr. Abud had in mind for them. He told us that we needed to find the volume of the candy. A few groups got Starbursts and the rest of the groups got M&M’s. In our first trial to find the volume we used a graduated cylinder and filled it up with an exact amount of water. We then placed the candy (wrapper and all) into the cylinder and subtracted the total volume from the volume gained due to the Starburst. We then were told that we should find the volume of the candy without the wrapper. When we did this we found that the wrapper (while lightweight and thin) affected the total volume more than expected. After the experiment Mr. Abud told the class about water displacement. This was the strategy to find the volume of the candy. Like I said from the start, even though I knew about water displacement, I was able to get a greater understanding of it!

The next day we were told by our sub to find the thickness of aluminum foil. We first found the mass of the piece of aluminum we were going to measure to also find the density. We then measured the length and width of the square which made it able for us to find the thickness. My original plan was to get a square of aluminum foil then foil it continuously until we could measure it with a ruler and then divide the number of layers of foil. But then thinking about it, I knew it was way too complicated to do and it would be almost inevitable to be precise. After the experiment the class came up with a variety of results for the aluminum foil. So to get a consensus, we did an average of all the data. On Friday we talked more about this and the particle diagram of the front and side of the foil. This then brought up the thought that particles could be different sizes but then I thought if we are unable to see these actual particles how do we know what size they are. Oh well, we’ll find out Monday…

The following day, we were told to find the volume of a gas. Mr. Abud gave us some beakers, a trough, an fizzing tablet, a tube connected to another beaker and something that reminded me of a giant contact lens. What we needed to do was fist fill the trough with water we then had to fill two of the beakers with water and flip them over into the trough without losing any of the water inside. I was bestowed with this difficult and messy task. We used the first beaker in the trough and slid it over a hole which was attached to a plug inserted in another beaker. We filled this beaker with water and put in the tablet then covered the beaker quickly with our plug. The gas that came from the tablet went up the beaker, through the tube and into the beaker in the trough. Due to water displacement, the air to the place of the water and we were able to find the volume of the gas.

Overall this week has been very exciting and I learned a lot, including something about myself. When taking my reassessment, I found out that I sometimes think about things too hard and it only gets me into more trouble. I just need to be calm and all the answers will come to me.