Week Nineteen

This week in chemistry was only a four day week because we had a snow day on Friday. We did two labs this week that were both really cool to me. The first one we got to mix hydrogen chloride with zinc and see what it resulted in. To collect the gas that the mixture produced we used the tubs. For this experiment safety was important since the hydrogen chloride could be dangerous if it came in contact with skin so we had to make sure we were wearing goggles at the times. After getting the acid and the zinc we put them both in the same container and then connected it with the tub. The first time we did this my group found that our cork was too small for out container so the gas was being released. This meant that we had to start over. After making sure everything fix right we combined the acid and zinc again and attached it to the tub and observed. As the mixture started to react it looked like it was fizzing and started to produce a gas. The gas the then went into the jar in the tub and we waiting for it to be filled. Once it was filled we wanted to see if it was combustible to find out what gas it was so we put a match under the jar and it made a popping sound meaning that it was combustible. After looking online to see the properties of hydrogen gas we determined that was what it was. The second experiment was when we heated magnesium. Mr. Abud told us that we wouldn't be able to look right at it because it would hurt our eyes, I didn't really know what he was talking about. When he actually heated it, it got really bright. I don't really understand why it got so bright though.