Experiments with Combustion!

On that days lab, there were several different labs that had several different outcomes. The tests were all about combustion: something that I find a lot of interest in. We learned what combustion was an what a catalyst is. A catalyst is something that you add to the reactants to get a different product. A catalyst can speed up or slow down reaction. You could also call the catalyst a “jumpstart” or an outside factor. The catalyst we used was fire. One of the test with fire we used was adding gasoline to a bottle. What our teacher did was put a little of the gasoline in a bottle (a plastic huge liter soda bottle) and closed the cap. The shook the bottle gently, allowing it to cover the insides. She continued doing this for several minutes. My hypothesis for what would happen is below the paragraph:

Hypothesis: It will make steam and blow up a bit because of the heat.

What happen is that some of the gasoline turned into gas and was in the bottle. The gas leaked out and allowed a bit of oxygen to get in. She then used the lighter and put it near the end. It blasted off into the wall. The oxygen was slightly flammable and was trying to rush into the bottle, sending it flying.

The second experiment was using Vinegar and the Sodium Bicarbonate. Our teacher mixed up the two and put her hand over the elmeyer flask. It created a vacuum and some of the mixture turned into a gas. She put the air over a flame and it went out. It went out because the gases was heavier than the oxygen keeping the flame alive, therefore killing it.

The third experiment was Hydrochloric Acid and Zinc. She put the acid in a beaker and then put in the zinc and lit it on fire.

Hypothesis: The heat will speed up the process and make it explode into the air.

She lights the beaker on fire. The gases rose into the air. This happened because the zinc combined with the chlorine, and the hydrogen separated into a gas and rose into the air.

The fourth experiment was elephant toothpaste. We added potassium iodide to hydrogen proxide and we then added dish soap. It then began to foam up and pour over the sides. It did this because of the two reacted and the oxygen rose to the top, making the stuff rise.

All in all, we learned what a catalyst can do to chemicals and how useful and harmful fire can be to different types of chemical compounds.