Week 3

Chemistry was very intriguing this week. We learned some new concepts and we also did some labs.
On Monday, we were informed about the difference between precision and accuracy and how we should record data. Precision was how certain a measurement was limited on the measuring tool that you use. Accuracy differs in the fact that its the correctness of the measurment limited by the observer. Also, your answer cannot be more precise than your least precise measure. So if, for example, you had the measurements 2.2 , 2.6, and 4.5 and had to mulitply them together to get the volume, you couldn't go past one digit to the right of the decimal place. We were also informed about when zero is a significant digit in your measurement. Its not siginificant if its a place holder like this : .3600, but it is important it its at the end of a decimal like this : .000 It is also important to include the zero if its in what we call a "zero sandwich" like this: .303
On Tuesday, we learned a new phsyical property of matter besides mass and volume which is...density! Density is basically how the matter is distributed in a certain amount of space. It can be expressed in multiple ways such as pictures, graphs, algebraicly and linguisticly. Examples of these ways are shown below:

 

That day, we did a lab to find out the density of water. We by measuring the mass of the measuring tube and the mass of the liquid in the measuring tube and subtracting the measuring tube from it. We found out that the density of water was .98 g/mL. But, on Wednesday, we found out differently.

Wednesday, we did a lab to figure out the densities of different liquids: water, Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fruit Punch, Dr. Pepper, Apple Juice, and oil. We figured out the following densities of each one and ranked them in order of least dense to most dense.

After we figured this out, on Thursday we realized from google that the actually density of water is 1.000 g/mL so there was some room for human error here. The reason why all of these liquids besides oil were so close to the density of water was because all of them are made up of mostly water. Since oil is a lot less dense than water is, it rises and does not mix with water. It floated on top of the water when we tried to mix them together.

Overall, this week I got to experience lots of new things about chemistry that I really didn't know before.

 



chemistry week two

I can already tell that chemistry is going to be one of my favorite classes this year. The "no-homework" style actually works very well for me because I am one who has a very busy schedule. The classroom environment is so chill and always puts me in a good mood. In one short week, we learn so much, but it doesn't even feel like a lot.
This week, we did a lot of different labs. All of these labs consisted of figuring out mass. The first lab that we did this week was with matches and and scale. We burned the matches on the scale and found out that when we burned them, they lost matter.
On Tuesday, my group did a lab that we had to pour sugar into water and figure out what happened to the mass. I predicted that the mass would be greater because you are putting the sugar into the water. I was correct I the sense that the mass went up, but I wasn't sure why. After other groups presented their experiments, we came to a consensus! it was that:
The mass of the system doesn't change unless matter is added or taken away from the system.
This is a model that we can use to predict future outcomes of experiments.
On the next day, we did another lab. we had to fill up a container full of water, measure the dimensions, and find the volume in cubic cm. Once we did that, we had to pour it into a measuring beaker and figure out how many mL it was and what the relationship of the two were. From this, we figured out that the measured volume=calculated volume, which meant that there is 1 cubic cm for very 1 mL! It was kinda cool that we figured this out on our own and I really enjoy doing labs.
On Friday we measure the volume and mass of these metal blocks. We tried to figure out if there was a relationship between the two. it turns out that there is not. The little red cube had more mass (g) than one of the bigger solve blocks. This proves that theres not as much matter in the longer one and not as much inertia, thus having more mass.
Overall, this week we learned a bunch of different things and made theories that can help us predict the outcome of other expiriments!

Week 1 Reflection

     So far, Chemistry is AWESOME! I LOVE CHEMT3AM! I like how we do a lot of hands on activities. Even though its only been a week, I have learned a lot! I learned how to use EMPOWER to remember things. I learned that the answer isn't always as important as the way that you get there. I've made some new friends and I feel like our class is going to be a great team! 

     The other day, we did this activity where we had to guess what the bottom of the box had on it. We all reasoned together as a class and came to a consensus that there couldn't be anything on the bottom of the box. We were right and it was really cool! 

      Another activity in this class that I had fun with was when we all got a different sheet of paper and we had to match up with three other people. The three other people would be in the same category as the name on our sheet of paper. For example, my group all had different states. During this activity, there were many groups and we didn't exactly know where to put each person. Some people had things like Saturn, which we didn't know whether to put in the category of cars or planets.  This made the activity more difficult. All in all, we once again reached a consensus as a class and had everybody in the right groups!

     I think that this year, chemistry will be a challenge. We took a pretest type of thing to see what we already knew about chemistry...I knew absolutely NOTHING. Hopefully, at the end of the year when we get to retake that test, I will do a lot better. I feel like if the class continues to be as fun as it is right now, it will be no problem to learn a lot and have an awesome time. 

     I am really looking forward to the rest of the year in this class. I really like Mr. Abud because he just seems like a cool guy... at least so far.... Anyways, I really like science in general so I am kind of excited to see what this year brings.  Challenge Accepted. 

Peace.