Hess's Law Lab

Hey everone! Friday was another interesting day in Chemistry. After everyone got seated, Mr. Lieberman talked to us about the days activity, which included a Hess's Law Lab. After going over the procedure, we got in our lab groups, put on our visorgogs, and got to work.

First, we made our date tables, which should ideally include two separate areas (for Equation A and Reaction #2) with spaces for two trials. We began Equation A by measureing two strips of magnesium ribbon and recording that in our data table. We then massed a clean dry calorimeter, and remassed it once we added 15 mL of HCl (recording both in the data table, of course). We took the initial temperature of the HCl, and then added a piece of magnesium to the calorimeter. We stirred the piece as it dissolved, and then retook the temperature once it was constant. Once that was over and we recorded all of those temperatures and masses in our data table, we repeated!

Then, it was on to Reaction #2. We remassed the calorimeter (once it was clean and dry), and remassed once we added 15 mL of HCl. To switch things up, we then added about .20 g of magnesium oxide. We recorded the masses of the calorimeter, as well as the actual mass of the magnesium oxide in our data table. Once we added the magnesium oxide in the calorimeter, we stirred until the temperature remained constant. We recorded this temperature and then repeated the whole process!

Once this lab was over, we left chemistry to go enjoy our weekends. Don't forget to work on this lab, though, it's due Tuesday! Good luck to Bobby S, our next scribe, on his first post for Period 6!