Fourth Week

The past week, we've mainly been working with density in the multiple experiments that we have done. First we did a candy lab, in which we tried to find the density off a non-normally shaped object. We worked with peanut M&M's. Although we could mass them, we were not able to simply measure they dimensions and find the volume. So, we had to use a new technique called water displacement. My putting water in a graduated cylinder and measuring it, we could drop in the M&Ms and measure the difference in water volumes to find the volume of the M&M. We could then divide the mass by the volume to get the density. Second, we did a lab to find the volume of a sheet of aluminum foil. We were given the density, and we could mass it. So, we had to be able to manipulate the formula for density and come up with the volume for the sheet. By finding out the volume, we found the height, which was the variable that we had to find. We ended our week of experiments with a gas lab. First we massed a flask of water and an alkaseltzer tablet. Then, filling a trough-like object with water, we could fill up a 295mL bell jar with water. Then, we put the tablet into the flask and covered it with a stopper. The stopper, though, had a tube coming out of it that led into the trough. The gas formed cause water to leave the bell jar and we could measure how much water was left in the jar at the end. With this we could determine the volume of the gas. Then, we massed the flask and were able to find the mass of the gas by subtracting the original mass from it. We did this lab in order to problem solve and find the relationship between the densities of gases, solids, and liquids. It was a very productive week and I was able to take a lot from it.