The Hydrates Lab

Before I begin to talk about this experiment may I include that this crystal lab blew my mind! (CuSO4 5H2O) We got blue crystals that weighed 5 grams and put them in a test tube over a flame to heat them up. When they were over the burner they began to turn white because the water was evaporating from the crystals. After they were fully white we weighted them in a cup at 1.73, this means that 3.2 grams of water evaporated. We got distilled water and poured it in the white crystlas and BOOM they turned back to the same exaclty blue color they started with!!

The blue crystals(with water)

 The effects of it becoming white after heating it up

Silver/Copper Replacement Lab

We got a copper wire that was about 30 cm long and coiled it around a pencil forming a spring like structure. We placed the sprinted copper into a tube and made sure it reached from the top to the bottom. When it did, we set it aside for later use. . . We weighted some silver nitrate and it cam to 1.018 grams. We transferred the silver nitrate into the test tube and poured distilled water until the water was 2 centimeters from the top. Then we covered the top of the test tube with parafilm, and you place your thumb on top and shake until the silver nitrate was all dissolved. After that we took the stretchy parafilm off and observed the reaction it made, it set their all week because Mr. Ludwig said that it would take time for it to react. The very next Monday we came back to school and the craziest thing happened!

It looked so pretty i didn't want to mess it up but we had to in order to get to the next step. Nika shook the tube and poured the substance in a filter we made with paper that weighted .906 grams. We took the coiled copper out and placed it on the side on a paper towel it weight 3.17 grams. Then we let that sit for a day so it could filter out all the way out. The next day the silver was dry in the paper filter and we weighted it and it was 2.17 grams.