Chem Blog Week 10

Before, I would confuse the three and said that they were the same thing. However, heat is the transferring of energy, while, the energy itself is just energy. Think of an Mp3 being energy and the iPod, computer, or CD being heat; it is just a different way the energy is stored but it is still the same energy.(More about that below!)

I also learned about how two substances of different temperatures  affect the overall temperature and the amount of heat when they are separately put into two containers of the same liquid at the same temperature. We did an experiment to find what would make a greater effect on the water overall: the hotter water with a smaller amount or the warm water with more water in that container. We found that the cup with more water in it, while being not as hot affected the temperature more that the other water. So the degree of hotness (temperature) depends on the speed of the particles and not the number of particles. The larger cup’s particle lacked in speed, but had greater mass. So mass and speed determined its greater energy input. While it took some people a while to understand what we had just learned, it came to me pretty easily (Once again,thanks Eureka!). It taught, along with Mr. Abud that the degree of hotness=temperature. The quantity of hotness=energy(heat).

We also learned that there are three principles of energy: Energy is a substance-like quantity that can be stored in a physical system, Energy can be “transferred” from one system to another and so cause changes in the system, and that energy still remains the same even after being transferred.
But, energy is not tangible. You can’t touch it or measure its mass on a balance. However, it can be transferred as well as stored. In Physics last year we were taught about different types of energy (kinetic, elastic, ect.) and that it would change. But like the example I was talking about earlier, just like music, even if energy moved in different ways, energy still remains the same. It doesn't change. Therefore, the quantity of energy can be changed, but the degree energy cannot be changed.On Friday Mr. Abud was not but we were able to communicate with him on someone’s iPad. He told us to work on a worksheet that dealed with boiling points and sumblimation. I am not very sure about that worksheet but hopefully we will talk more about it on Monday.

 Our thermoses are due on Monday and thankfully I didn’t leave to the last second because that would have been a nightmare! I am just putting on the finishing pieces. Hopefully it works well because I worked really hard on it. This week has been pretty stressful because I was gone on Friday and since the holiday is coming the week is even more busier than usual. But I’m getting through this weekend slowly but surely!

 

Chem Blog Week 9

This week in class, we learned how to measure atmospheric pressure using a barometer we had to make for a project, and how to mathematically find the pressure, temperature, volume, and number of particles.

We previously learned that a barometer measures atmospheric pressure. During the past weekend we were told to make one out of household materials. I used the more common model, (a jar with a balloon on top and a straw) but I made it to work efficiently by including a guide and a stand for the barometer.  Mr. Abud really liked mine and he did so much that he tweeted it!

We later went outside to experiment with our barometers. The moment we went outside my barometer began to react to the increase of atmospheric pressure. The needle went up outside because of two factors: temperature and pressure. Since it was cold outside and there weren't many clouds in the sky, this meant that the cold air, denser than the warm air, pushed down on the warm air, or the warm air remained above the cold air. Thus, air pressure increased. Since it was cold outside, I figured the cold air pushed down, but not necessarily on the warm air. It may not have pushed down on the warm air because it is possible that the water evaporated because the air was warm enough to do so, and then the clouds condensed before the cold air pushed down. Even in my car on the way to class, the pressure was measure being low because the heat was on so I was really excited that I kind of learned something before the class did. I also noticed that the needle on the barometer went up because the colder air exerted greater pressure on the balloon, thus accounting for the increasing downward force. Then, as the balloon is pushed downward, the needle goes up because of the elasticity in the balloon providing a counter upward force (torque) to lift up the balloon at the point where the balloon dips. I also learned that as we went inside, atmospheric pressure went down, since the atmosphere inside is mostly warm air. Therefore, the decreasing pressure pushing onto the balloon causes the needle to go down.

This week, I also learned how to do mathematical problems involving temperature, volume, number of particles, and pressure. I learned that the secret to do these problems is to keep in mind that when you are trying to find the change of one of the factors, you have to make that you keep them proportionately related to each other. I am a little bit shaky on this but hopefully I should be able to understand it next week.

This week was slightly complicated because I am actually in St. Louis typing this “rough draft” of my blog because the hotel has terrible Wi-Fi and I won’t be able to send it to you! So I’m sorry in advance for this being late. Hopefully I should be able to catch up on what I missed on Friday.

Chem Blog Week 8

While this week was stressful, I had a bunch of fun in #ChemT3am!

This week, we learned about pressure affecting the motion of a medicine dropper using 2-liter bottle filled with water–one with the opening welded shut and the other in an open system. I learned that as we squeezed the pop bottles, the medicine dropper went down because the volume decreased, making the pressure increase. So, these two factors caused the force to go upward. As the force reached to the top, there was even less volume to go up, since the dropper  provided some resistance, so the force went downward since it was exerted onto the medicine dropper. But, since one was in a closed system and the other was in an open system, the one in the closed system went down easier since nothing went into the syringe needle and resisted going down. However, in the open system, there was upward resistance in medicine bottle since some water got into it, but it wasn't enough to prevent the downward force since it had greater pressure than the upward resistance, thus causing the dropper to go down.

I also learned how the temperature affects the motion of particles in glow sticks. My group and I experimented with the different temperatures of water and put the glow sticks in the water.  We put 3 glow sticks in 3 different temperature conditions: warm water from the burner, water with ice added and room temperature water. We found that the relationship between the brightness of the glow sticks and the temperature is that as the temperature increased, the brightness increased because the temperature increased the motion of particles. However, the glow sticks in the cooler water didn't glow as much because the particles were more closer together, didn't move as quickly, and didn't move greater distances. So maybe that is why the package said to keep it away from heat because if we kept putting it hot water the glow stick company would go out of business!

When we were reviewing our previous labs, Mr. Abud gave us a challenge to find the point of temperature where there would be absolutely zero movement in particles. We came up with a very close temperature to the actually temperature of -273.15°c. We were then told that this temperature is called Absolute Zero. This is the point when there is no movement with particles and it is measured in Kelvins.

This weekend we were given the assignment to create a barometer out of household materials . A barometer is an instrument that measures atmospheric pressure, and how it works is that the liquid (water for my barometer) inside of it expands or contracts depending on the amount of pressure. We also learned about the manometer. A manometer measures  the difference in pressure from atmosphere to a system of gas, which is how the two instruments are different from each other.

This past week was a very busy one because it was the last week of the quarter. But chemistry was the only class I was not losing sleep about. When I am class I learn so much and since we don’t receive homework I am able to have the information settle in my brain instead of it spewing out on a worksheet. Even with the experiment given, I was able to finish it within an hour and it only took that long because I was making it “fancy”.

 

Chem Blog Week 7

In chemistry this week, I learned about expansion, contraction, and the relationship between pressure, volume, temperature, and the number of particles. On Monday, We talked about the ethanol and water experiment.Both were heated with the burner for the same amount of time and given energy through the process of heating–and why the ethanol in the tube rose while the water didn't as much. This is due to  expansion. Expansion is when a liquid takes up more volume as its volume is increased by more energy input through heating. Therefore, expansion occurred in the ethanol while heating occurred. The heating caused the particles to spread out over a longer distance, therefore, causing the ethanol level to increase.Throughout the week, we learned the opposite of expansion–contraction. Contraction is where the volume of a liquid is going down as a result of it cooling down. As the liquid cools down, the particles get closer and closer together. They don't spread out. Therefore, the volume goes down as the particles become more densely packed from cooling.The connection between expansion and contraction is how they affect the overall density as well as volume of a liquid. Through expansion, the volume increases, meaning that the density is going to decrease since the number of particles and mass remain the same with increasing volume. As for contraction, the volume increases. Therefore, the density will increase since the number of particles and mass remain unchanged with a decreasing volume. Therefore, expansion andcontraction affect not only the volumeof a liquid, but also its density. Pressure is the physical force exerted from one object onto another object, which can be represented by the formula: pressure=force/given area. In this case, the air particles exerted their physical force onto the water particles.Pressure, though, is affected based on the force exerted onto the area, which means that the greater the area or volume, the less the pressure. If the area were less, though, then the pressure would be greater. Pressure is affected because the greater the area is, the greater the resistance to apply pressure is. Therefore, the pressure is less than if there were a lesser area that pressure would exert with less resistance. This also applies to the experiment Mr. Abud showed us. He brought out a latex glove and the device that resembled a bed of nails. He first placed the baloon on the bed with rows of nails and when he pressed down the glove did not pop, however when there was only one nail and the glove was placed it popped quickly because the area that the force applied to was not as large a before therefore the amount of pressure was increased at that spot making the glove pop. Throughout the week, the focus was on pressure, volume, temperature, and the number of particles. In class Mr. Abud gave us 4 different types of experiments our group was given the challenge to find the relationship between pressure and temperature. What our group found was that the relationship between temperature and pressure is that since increasing temperature would increase the volume, then the pressure would decrease. Therefore, the more the temperature is, the less the pressure is.The relationship between volume and temperature was a direct one. The greater the temperature was, the greater the volume. The reason for this is because the greater the temperature, the greater the energy input through the process of heating. This would cause the particles in a liquid to separate farther from each other, thus increasing the volume.The relationship between the number of particles and pressure was direct. Thus, the greater the number of particles is, the greater the pressure is. However, temperature doesn't influence the number of particles because temperature doesn't determine the number of particles and the number of particles determines the temperature. Although I missed two days this past week I was able to catch up thanks to the #ChemT3am!