Second Week

So far in Honors Chemistry, we have been able to conduct over 7 experiments. One day we conducted 5, and soon came to a conclusion about the Conservation of Mass-If matter is not added or lost from the system, then mass stays the same. We determined this by burning matches, mixing water with alkaseltzer/sugar, mixing calcium nitrate and sodium carbonate, and finally stretching steel wool. We also determined that mass is the measure of the amount of matter that makes up an object. We have also done a volume lab, in which we measured water in a beaker(measured in mL), and then placed that water into a container, where we calculated the volume(measured in cm^3). In this lab we determined that 1mL=1cm^3. Also, we discovered the 5% rule of negligible uncertainty. This rule states that if your y-intercept is </= 5% of max value, then you assume 0. We also came to the conclusion that precision is how certain a measurement is, which is limited by the measurement tool. Also, accuracy is the correctness of your measurement, which is limited by the observer. Finally, in this lab, we determined that a source of uncertainty is a situation when you don't know what happened (Ex; human error.)