CSEC Chemistry

Discussion questions for Selected Lab reports

Mr. Banton

I. Diffusion
a. Why did the water acquire the purple color of the permanganate
crystals?
b. How does the experiment demonstrate that matter is made of
particles?
c. Why was care taken not to disturb the water when adding the
permanganate crystals?

II. Diffusion of gases

a. Why was a cloud ring formed in the glass tube?
b. Why did the universal indicator paper closest to the hydrochloric acid
turn red?
c. Why did the universal indicator paper closest to the concentrated
ammonia turn brown?
d. Which gas diffused furthest?
e. Which gas travelled fastest? Why?
f. How does this experiment demonstrate that matter is made of
particles?

III. Construction of a cooling curve

a. Explain the shape of the curve.
b. At what period of time was latent heat of fusion released?
c. Based on your graph, what is the melting point of naphthalene?
Compare your value with a literature value. Account for any
differences between your value and the literature value.

IV. Construction of a solubility curve

a. Based on your graph, does the solubility of potassium dichromate
increase, decrease or remain the same with increasing temperature?
b. Explain your assessment in a) above in terms of factors which affect
solubility.
 V. Separation of sodium chloride from sand
a. Why was water added to the mixture of sand and sodium chloride?
b. What was the residue left behind on the filter paper?
c. Why was filtration suitable for separating the residue from the
colorless solution formed?
d. Why was the colorless solution left to boil in an evaporating dish?

VI. Chromatography
a. What is chromatography?
b. How does chromatography work?
c. What was the role of the filter paper?
d. What was the role of the water?
e. Based on the experiment, how many components make up screened
methyl orange?
f. Account for the order of colors obtained on the filter paper after
elution.

VII. Preparation of a soluble salt

a. Why did the black solid (CuO) form a blue
solution when heated in sulphuric acid?
(Supply a relevant equation)
b. Why was it necessary to heat the blue
solution formed?
c. Why were the crystals from the blue solution allowed to form
gradually? (Why not remove all the water by heating?)

VIII. Preparation of an insoluble salt

a. What are salts?
b. Why was a white precipitate formed when aqueous iron (ii) sulphate
was mixed with aqueous barium nitrate? (write an equation for this)
c. Why is the white precipitate insoluble in water?