Designing an investigation ‘When asked to design an investigation you must think carefully about what level of detail to include. You must identify what your independent variable is and which values you are planning to use for it. The dependent variable ‘must also be identified along with how you are going to measure it. The next thing you need to do is to suggest how ‘you will control other variables. Finally, outline the method in a series of numbered steps that is detailed enough for someone else to follow. Remember to include repeat readings to help improve reliability. FERED ncncomen |1 Planet Earth aurea aru ccrn rain © 1.1 Estimating the percentage of oxygen in the air © 1.2 The effects of acid rain on metal © 1.3 The effect of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere Practical investigation 1.1 Estimating the percentage of oxygen in the air Objective ‘Oxygen is one of the gases that make up Earth’ atmosphere. It isan important element and is involved in many reactions necessary for life. In this investigation you will estimate what percentage of the atmosphere is made up ‘of oxygen. To do this you will use the rusting of iron. This is an oxidation reaction in which the oxygen from the atmosphere reacts with iron to form rust, As the oxygen is removed from the ar inthe tube to form iron oxide, the ‘same volume of water is drawn up the tube. By measuring how far water is drawn up inside a boiling tube it will be possible to calculate the percentage of oxygen in the air. By the end of this investigation you should be able to state ‘the composition of clean, dry air. Equipment + Iron wool ‘¢ measuring cylinder (25em’) | © boiling tube © glass rod © rubber bung ‘© permanent marker pen © beaker (250cm")Method 1. Place. piece of iton wool into the bottom of the boiling tube, It needs to be large enough so that is does not ‘move when the boiling tube is inverted (turned upside down). You can use the glass rod to help you push the iron wool to the bottom, 2 Pour water into the boiling tube untiit is half fll so that the iron wool is completely covered then place the rubber bung on the boiling tube. 3. Fill the beaker with approximately 150m’ of water. 4 Invert the boiling tube and place it into the beaker, holding the bung while you do this to avoid the bung falling out. 5 Carefully remove the bung from the boiling tube (Figure 1.1). Iron woo! bolting tube beaker Figure 1.1 6 Using the marker pen, draw alline to mark how far the column of air ison the boiling tube. Label this line with the word ‘start, 7 Leave the experiment for a week. 8 Using the marker pen, a draw line to mark the new position ofthe column of ai. Label this line with the ‘word ‘nish: 9 Carefully remove the boiling tube from the beaker. 10 Fill the boiling tube with water up to the line you labelled ‘start: Now pour the water into a measuring cylinder. Record this value in the table below. 11. Empty the measuring cylinder then fill the boiling tube with water to the line labelled finish. 12 Now pour the water into a measuring cylinder. Record this value in the table. Also record any observations. Safety considerations None BD os cyRecording data Because the water will have the same volume as the air inside the tube, by measuring the volume of water you will also be measuring the volume of air that was inside the tube. ‘Volume to start line/em? Volume to finish line/ cn? Observations of the iron woo! inside the tube: Handling data You now need to calculate the difference between the two volumes. To do this you must subtract the volume of water to the finish line from the volume of water to the start lin. Difference in volume é Now you need to calculate the % difference. To do this you must first divide the difference in volume that you calculated above by the value for the volume of water to the start line. Difference in volume / Volume at start = ‘Now multiply this value by 100 to get the percentage =. % Analysis: 1 Use the words below to fill in the gaps in the paragraph, and your own results to complete the conclusion. ‘The reaction that took place was called. ‘This is the name for the oxidation of. _.« Oxygen from the atmosphere reacted with the iron wool to form a new compound called cso. OF Tus Atthe start of the investigation the air in the tube contained «ss but by the end this had all gone as it had reacted with the iron. As the oxygen had been removed from the air the... Of gas inside the tube was lower. This meant that... from the beaker moved up inside the boiling tube. By measuring the in the volume of gas from start to finish, it was possible to calculate the volume of oxygen that had been removed from the air in the tube. This was then calculated to be %. pee