Essay --

Shusanta Bhattarai Ms. Kelley Formal lab report The conservation of Mass and how it’s connected to chemical reactions Introduction In this lab, we were looking at the conservation of matter, chemical reactions and using mass to find the number of moles present after a reaction. We had previously studied moles (measurement system) and mass. We copiously took notes on the masses of the objects after reactions and observed how the quantity would â€Å"change† after a chemical reaction. The conservation of mass is a law that states a mass will stay consistent over time and will not change until it is not combined or removed. We performed a lot of chemical reactions in this lab. The first part of the lab was putting a coiled piece of copper in silver nitrate and washing it out with water. The second and third part was also about adding chemicals and seeing the reactions. The purpose of the experiment was to determine if the values of silver and silver nitrate would stay the same. The hypothesis was that if chemical elements and compounds react the ratio would stay the same, due to the conservation of mass and the law it has. Procedure Originally, I was supplied with 30 cm of copper wire and a test tube. First, the wire was cleaned with steel wool.The copper wire was coiled around the full length of the test tube. The copper was then weighed. Then an empty 250 ml beaker that was labeled by my partner was weighed. A vial of white silver nitrate was also weighed. After, 2/5th of the clean beaker was filled with distilled water and the solid silver nitrate was stirred in with the water until the crystals that were formed dissolved. Then the end of the copper wire was bent so we could submerge the coil in the solution and still be able t... ...s is attached and the mass must remain consistent over time. The chemical process did not change the quantity and it showed. 4. The ratios might be different because there might have been a flaw in the procedure. They all still surround 1 and no one in the class got one but we all got something close. 5. I think that the decanting process was the main source of contamination. Sometimes water doesn’t take out all the specks. We could buy a high tech decanting type-system and walk through each student individually so that there would be minimal chance of error. Conclusion We saw that no matter the chemical change we would get the same ratio. The purpose worked out in a great fashion and showed us that the quantity was almost the same. The whole class got a number that was close to one. The hypothesis was supported because the conservation of matter proved to be true.