Empirical Formula Lab

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Introduction:
To properly complete this lab, a basic understanding of mass, moles, and empirical formula is required. Mass is a unit of measurement that is used to determine the number of grams in a certain object. A mole is a measurement in which the amount of substance that is present can be determined.To convert between from mass to moles the amount of grams present is divided by the atomic mass to find moles. To get back to mass from mols the amount of mols is multiplied by the atomic mass. An empirical formula is a chemical equation with the simpliest positive ratio possible. To find an empirical formula the elements in the formula must be in moles. Then the smallest amount of moles is used to divide all the other mole numbers. These numbers …show more content…

The purpose of this lab is to use lab equipment and procedure to gather data about the mass of an undefined amount of magnesium and oxygen. This data is then meant to be used to find the empirical formula of a magnesium oxygen compound.

Materials/Equipment:
Crucible with cover
Ring stand
Magnesium Ribbon
Iron ring
Clay triangle
Crucible tongs
Dropper pipet
Scissors
Burner
Balance
scale
Safety goggles
Lab apron

Procedure:
To start the lab, all participants should put on all proper safety equipment, tie up hair, and roll up sleeves. Then they should get a crucible with a cover and place that on a clay triangle. A ring stand and iron ring should then be set up and a bunsen burner should be lit and adjusted to a proper flame. The crucible with cover and the clay triangle should be placed on the iron ring and in the hottest part of the bunsen burner’s flame for three minutes. After three minutes, the crucible and cover should be removed from the flame and allowed to cool. Once cooled, a scale should be used to calculate the mass of the empty crucible with the cover. Then a 20 centimeter piece of magnesium ribbon should be cut into one centimeter pieces and placed in the crucible. The mass of the crucible should be …show more content…

The ratio is one to one because there was .004 moles of oxygen reacted in the crucible and .0041 moles of Magnesium. The ratio of these two numbers when it is rounded to the nearest whole number is 1:1. Some potential errors that could have happened in the lab process that could cause varying data among lab participants include; the strength of flame, size of magnesium ribbon, and the amount of water added. During the lab, a bunsen burner is required to evaporate water from the crucible and start other reactions. If the flames are at different strengths then different amounts of water could have been evaporated from each dish, causing a change in mass. Also, specific to our lab, the magnesium ribbon was only broken by hand and not broken into precise 1 centimeter pieces like asked in the lab. This caused the ribbons to vary in length which could sque the data. Another error was that there was no set amount of water that was to be added. This means that the amount of water added could vary per group and so could the amount of oxide found in the dish after heating. Some changes that could be made to improve the lab would be to specify a specific amount of water that should be added to the crucible each time it requires water. Also, if a larger amount of magnesium was used in a future experiment it would be easier to determine the moles

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