Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Freezing and Melting Water Lab

Problem: What is the relationship between the freezing and melting points of water?

Hypothesis: They are far apart on the temperature scale.

Materials:
-ring stand
-safety goggles
-test tube

-400 mL beaker
-water
-10 mL graduated cylinder ice
-salt
-temperature probe

-Logger Pro
-verneir computer interface
-computer
-stirring rod 
-spoon
-paper cup

Procedure: Collect the materials listed above. Put on safety goggles. Connect the temperature probe to the lab quest mini and insert the probe in to the test tube. Plug the lab quest mini into the computer. Open the Logger Pro file called 02 Freeze Melt Water. Fill the beaker 1/3 full of ice and add 100 mL. Measure 5 spoonfuls of salt into the paper cup. Put 5 mL of water in the test tube. Put the beaker under the ring stand and select the collect button on the computer. Lower the test tube in the beaker and move the probe around inside the test tube. Add the 5 spoonfuls of salt to the water in the beaker and use the stirring rod to dissolve it. When the data collection table reaches ten minutes, lean the test tube against the inside of the beaker and let it be until the 15 minutes on the data collection table is up. Remove the test tube and hold it so that the probe inside doesn't move at all. Select the flat part of the graph and hit the statistics button. What ever the listed median is is the freezing point of water. Write this down on a chart.
Dispose of the ice water and fill the beaker with normal tap water. Hit the collection button. Set the flask inside the beaker, after 12 minutes, on the ring stand. Select the flat area of the graph and click the statistics button. The median is the melting point of water.

Results: We got to use a temperature probe to find out what the freezing and melting points are.
We realized that it wasn't the boiling point we were looking for. We were looking for the melting and freezing points, which was when we realized that they would be close together. We found that the melting point was .7063˚C and the freezing point was .6433˚C. The water temperature dropped really low when we put it in the ice water bath and it spiked near the end of the warm tap water. The freezing temperature is close in temp to that of the melting point. The melting point is higher. Clean up lab area and materials. Take goggles off.

Does the Kinetic energy stay the same, increase or decrease...

when the temperature is changing at the beginning and end of Part I 
The kinetic energy is decreasing.
when the temperature remains constant in Part I
The kinetic energy stays the same or there is none. The potential energy is increasing.
when the temperature is changing at the beginning and end of Part II 

the kinetic energy is increasing.
when the temperature remains constant in Part II 
it stays the same or there is none. The potential energy is increasing.


Conclusion: If I were to do this experiment again I would like to have a utility clamp to hold the test tube in place instead of having team members take turns holding it. I would also liked to have had more use for a graduated cylinder. If we could put a twist on it we could use a freezer to speed up the process.
I now realize my mistake in thinking we were talking about freezing and boiling points. I think that was the  main reason that my hypothesis was wrong. I now know that I must make sure to read about what we are doing carefully. 

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