Limestone's Reaction With Hydrochloric Acid

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Limestone's Reaction With Hydrochloric Acid

Planning the experiment.

This experiment will show how much limestone fizzes when added to

hydrochloric acid.

I will gather the gas released from the fizzing and measure how long

it takes to gather a certain amount of gas.

Burette

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The light blue area represents the hydrochloric acid, and the white

blobs are the limestone. The grey area is the carbon dioxide released

from the HCl and CaCO3 reaction, heading in the direction indicated by

the arrows. The dark blue areas are water.

Using this equipment, I will conduct 5 tests, each one with the same

equipment, the same mass of limestone, the same volume of acid, but in

each test the acid will be a different strength. This keeps it all a

fair test. The 5 acid strengths will be

0.5M, 0.75M, 1.0M, 1.5M, and 2.0M. I will conduct each test twice, so

as to obtain two sets of results for each acid strength. This will

enable me to take averages.

This idea of taking averages will account for any slight mishaps in

the tests, for example, different air temperatures can affect how

quickly the reaction between the CaCO3 and the HCl takes place.

I predict that the stronger the acid is, and the warmer the air is,

the faster the limestone will react with the hydrochloric acid. This

prediction is based mainly upon the collision theory, for this states

that as substances heat up, the molecules and the atoms move around

faster, in this case the acid moves and collides with the limestone

more, causing the reaction to increase in speed. Also, the more

concentrated the acid is, the higher the strength of the reactions

are.

The strategy I choose to take is that of placing the limestone into

the acid, activating the stopwatch, and putting the bung in the top of

the flask as quickly as possible. There will be 50 millilitres of

water in the glass tube. I will allow the carbon dioxide to travel

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