Monday, May 9, 2016

Airbag Lab

We were given the challenge to make a theoretical airbag with a bag, vinegar, and baking soda. It is tricky because we will need to use just the right amount of vinegar and baking soda to inflate the bag to the right amount... Not too little and not too much. To do this we had to find the volume of the random bag given to us. To do this, we filled the bag with water and poured it into a graduated cylinder to obtain an exact volume. After this we could use some of the gas law formulas to calculate the mols of CO2 needed to inflate the bag. 

I had a fairly small bag and needed about .01 mols of CO2.. So about .87 grams of baking soda and 15mL of vinegar. 

The experiment went well and I was able to pass the lab by inflating the bag to the right amount. Here is a photo of what the experiment looked like. 
https://91b6be3bd2294a24b7b5-da4c182123f5956a3d22aa43eb816232.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/contentItem-1775800-8789806-zkm4rd3o03jlr-or.jpg

Post Gas Law Quiz

Another doozy thrown at us by Mrs. Frank. Going into the quiz, I felt pretty confident and felt like I knew the material well enough. Once I started the quiz I immediately started questioning myself on the conceptual questions given to us. They were tricky and maybe a little more reading from the book would've helped. All is well though, moving on mentally to the test. Need to do well!
https://healingcrystalslove.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/bigstock-emoticon-pointing-to-his-eyes-45241642.jpg

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Avagadro's and Combined Laws

Avagadro's Law is another law that we just recently learned. It is a little more complicated to work out mathematically but it makes sense if you think about it. It is the relationship between the mols of a gas and the volume of it: V1/n1=V2/n2(n=mols). Here is a photo explaining the relationship in visual terms.
http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/@api/deki/files/8681/=Avogadro.jpg?revision=1
The next law we learned is the Combined Laws. This essentially combines all the laws we have learned and puts it into one fat equation. It is getting more complicated because there is a lot of information that needs to be taken out of a problem and filtered. Here is a photo with more details. 
http://thescienceclassroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Combined-Gas-Law.png

Boyle's and Charle's Law

Our new unit is Gas Laws. So far we have learned a few of the gas laws and I'd like to reflect on the first couple. The first is Boyle's Law, he discovered the relationship gases share between volume and pressure. The equation is simply P1V1=P2V2. It is a simple proportion that makes sense when you think about it. Here is a simple photo to explain the relationship.
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/Images/boyle.gif

The next law we learned about is Charles' Law. Charles' Law shows the relationship that Temperature and Volume share: V1/T1=V2/T2. It is also simple to think about, When something is heated their particles get more excited and thus their volume is increased. Here is another photo that explains it simply. 
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6G_Jt0_9y3LtDq_T2xkH7pNjRkcB39o0TOOo6Ej_m-BugOlwq-TliuzG2862vuEhEXT1_AMyxQN1P8jMBZSsHQZqh_y6LEy50mLqS_oDJ3tBlDHvJdLquvXkCFR6LFjijKuCH3NL9exbl/s1600/CL+Double.png

Friday, April 29, 2016

Post Energy Test

The test wasn't terrible for me. It was skeptical because we were given 30 minutes to do 22 question over the unit and it counted as 100 points. So you were given very little wiggle room with the amount of questions you could miss. The practice tests Frank put on schoology really helped, the format of the questions were pulled directly from that. In the end, I was able to pull off an A which was huge to my quarter grade.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTRswvTftRi2f42ClCvwGvxDsAZBpQz7EG0Ncb5hdmNV1GATXD3

Pre Energy Test

Here are some links that I used for the test! They helped me review a lot of the material.


Phase Change
Thermodynamics
MCAT Formula
Practice Quiz
Phase Change Graph
Energy Review
Add caption

http://www.kentchemistry.com/images/links/matter/HeatCool.gif



Sunday, April 17, 2016

Biodiesel Boat

We were given the opportunity to use our biodiesel to run our put-put boats. It was an exciting event because we actually got to make a boat and race it against others. After a tedious 10 minutes of construction, Kyle and I created a boat out of a gallon jug. We raced it and got a pretty average time, but we made it across the finish line, meaning we get full credit. In the end, I thought this was a needed change of pace for this class. It was an enjoyable break and it took some stress of of my senioritis that is kicking in pretty hard. Anyway.. I didn't actually get a picture of our boat, but here is a cool put-put boat :-)
http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/pop-pop/maud.jpg

Biodiesel Lab

We started our biodiesel lab a couple weeks ago, and I have to say it was one of the more fun things we have done. It started off with the video that I discussed earlier in the week. Then we actually got to make our biodiesel. It was honestly an easy process and makes me wonder why we don't use biodiesel... Anyway, it ended up eating through our cups and we had to throw it away :/...
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BiodieselCycle.jpg



Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Biodiesel Project

We have worked on a bio-diesel video for the last week. Kyle and I made out project to increase awareness on how bio-diesel can help the environment. We used some pathos to get to the viewer. We compared the poor effects of oil to the benefits of bio-diesel.
http://www.natgeocreative.com/comp/05/721/460036.jpg

Pancake Party


The pancake party was a nice break. It was a great time with a lot of fun and laughs. Frank the Tank made some delightful pancakes and we had plenty of tasty toppings. Frank also made an attempt to create some geometrical shape with the pancake batter.. The image is still up for debate on what it actually looks like..

Bonding Post Test

The bonding test was quite difficult for me. I was not entirely prepared because the previous weekend and a few of my weekdays were spent at DECA state and I was not able to refresh or review until I got home. Hopefully I can work hard to get my grade back up.
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQP5wmGH8XfJlRTwJktavNfE4hMHMirMFLslIsWVNyN4exZcGjq

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Post Electronic Structure Test

The Electronic Structure Test... It is a step down from last unit so I was hoping for a somewhat easier test in comparison. The test was 50 questions which is a little overwhelming because we don't have the longest time in the world to finish the test. I thought it was a very detailed test that could easily trick you. A lot of the units could've thrown you off and a lot of the little wording about shells and structure too. All in all I am hoping for a decent grade, even if I do miss a few simple ones, there was room for error. On to the next unit!

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/006/472/P96pX.jpg



Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Quiz Results

I received the results and I was pleased! I use my quiz results to help me determine how much I know about the chapter. This means I will hopefully do well on the test because we only added one more lesson to the chapter after the quiz. All is well in the chem world, we are continuing to grind to the end.
http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/RcG/yaR/RcGyaR8Xi.gif

Spec 20 Lab

This lab was a very tedious lab. We had to measure the amount of light passing through a certain solution in a very expensive machine. The machine was able to tell us the amount of light being absorbed into the solution and the light passing through. I have not written the lab report and I will get back to you with results in the end.
The very expensive machine

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Post Electronic Structure Quiz

Going into the quiz I felt pretty good. I did all of the practice quizzes and felt comfortable about the real quiz that was awaiting us on Friday. Going into it knowing it was 35 questions felt good. It allows a little room for error if there are a couple tricky ones. The actual quiz was somewhat tricky. The questions seemed to be very easy, except there was a lot of detail that you needed to pay attention too because it could've easily tricked you. All in all, I thought the quiz was okay. Hopefully the score reflects my thoughts.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Smiley.svg/2000px-Smiley.svg.png

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Lessons on Electronic Structure

The first couple of lessons of this unit aren't as bad as a lot of other units we have had. The first lesson was primarily math. All we had to do was plug and chug with a couple equations that have to do with wavelength and frequency. Then we moved on to a little more complex stuff that involves electron orbitals. So far so good though, hopefully this unit will help me get back into the rhythm of chemistry.


Here is the wavelength equation:
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT3DRXYikGd8jhZJFRVmum0AIs2awppkHZsfjWdeHwBkfRiEoG_ZQ

Here is electron orbitals: 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Electron_orbitals.svg/2000px-Electron_orbitals.svg.png

Monday, February 15, 2016

Overall Summary of Acids and Bases

Overall, it was a difficult, yet interesting unit. I personally was gone two days for field trips and those days were on the lab days. This was a good and bad thing. Good because I didn't miss any lessons, and bad because there was 3 questions from the lab we performed. Oh wells... Everything that was said about acids and bases was somewhat true. It was a difficult unit but I gave it my best effort. It was a good run Acids and Bases.....
http://rs269.pbsrc.com/albums/jj77/carasian/bye-1.gif~c200

Sincerely, 
Matt