Cool Reactions

In this video, there are 10 reactions. I will use my knowledge taken from class to determine whether it is a reaction or is not, provide the balance chemical equation, and tell which type of reaction it is.

10. Sodium and Water in Chlorine Gas: This is a chemical reaction. The reactants, Sodium and Chlorine, create Sodium Chloride, or salt. 2Na + Cl(2) = 2NaCl, and this is a synthesis reaction.

9. Magnesium and Dry Ice Reaction: This is a chemical reaction. The reactants, Magnesium and Carbon Dioxide, and gas is produced. Dry Ice is composed of pressurized CO2, which Magnesium can burn in. 2Mg + CO2 = 2MgO + C, this is a Single Methesis replacement because Magnesium replaces the Carbon.

8. Potassium Chlorate and Candy Reaction: This is a chemical reaction. Oxygen is produced from the burning of Potassium Chlorate and the candy. This is a combustion reaction. 6KClO3 + C6H12O6 –> 6KCl + 6H2O + 6CO2 + 3O2 (I’m using glucose because of the candy)

7. Meissner Effect: This is not a chemical reaction, because this is dealing with a temperature change and magnets, causing an object to “float”. Magnets, how do they work?

6. Sodium Acetate Super Saturation: This is not a chemical reaction. The only thing that changes in the Sodium Acetate’s state. Nothing is produced.

5. Superabsorbent Polymer: This is not a chemical reaction. The polymer is just absorbing the liquid and nothing is produced from it.

4. Floating on Sulfur Hexafluoride: This is not a chemical reaction, the Sulfur Hexafluoride making objects “float” is nothing more than using it’s physical properties ( it being 5 times denser than air )

3. Superfluid Helium: This is not a chemical reaction, Helium is undergoing physical changes.

2. Thermite and Liquid Nitrogen: This is a chemical reaction. Smoke and fire were produced during this reaction. This is a Metathesis reaction, single replacement reaction. Fe(2)O(3) + 2Al = Al(2)O(3) + 2Fe

1. Briggs-Rauscher Reaction: This is a chemical reaction, because there is a color change. I can’t tell the type of reaction nor the equation because the lack of info needed. 

My favorite would have to be the Potassium Chlorate and Candy Reaction, taking something so sweet, into something… a little more fun.


White Powder and Unknown Liquid

In an exploration lab, we tested reactants which included; a white, and liquid. Depending on which solid/liquid we used, they typically produced ~50% of their mass to CO2 gas. Switching between the reactants, a mass relationship does not apply because they reacted differently and had different produce. A molar relationship does exist because they are balanced equations and the products and reactants may be different, but that are still composed of the same elements. Meaning that is a number of moles of a reactant is mixed, it will produce so many moles of whatever it may be.

The Mole, in all it’s glory…

Moles… or the chemist dozen, other known as 602000000000000000000. Just to sweeten up that number let’s just use 6.02×10^23. The number was created by Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro.. Let’s call him Avogadro, since he was the one to create a “mole” it’s also called Avogadro’s Number (creative right?) After our discussions in class and notes; I see a mole as a unit of measurement. *”A mole is what chemist use to measure the quantities at the magnitude of 602 sextillion”. Let’s say you have a glass of water that weighed to be 18.02 grams. You would have 6.02×10^23 molecules of water. What I have taken from this section is just how large a mole is and how we use it. What really shocked me you could say is just how large that number is, it’s inconceivable.

mole(a mole




)chemcat(this was painful to make)

How to – Percent Composition

Percent Composition is the how much an element is to that of the compound it’s in. When given a compound, let’s say  we want to know the percentage of Potassium in K2C2O7, which would be Potassium Dicarbonate. You would take the weight of the element from the Periodic Table and add them together. Potassium weights 39.09 amu, Carbon weights 12.01 amu, Oxygen weighs 16.00 amu. Now just add them up to get the sum of the compound. 2(39.0 amu)+2(12.01amu)+7(16.00amu)= 214.18 amu. Now divide the total amount of weight by the weight of Potassium (in the compound). 78.18/214.18= .365 or %36.5. Using percent composition in Chemistry can help us with the amount of a component in a compound.

Science by the Numbers

Accuracy and precision both have different meanings. When we talk about accuracy, we  refer it to how closely the data is with the true value, while precision is how close single measurements are together. It’s easy to visualize, imagine you’re shooting at a target; your goal is to aim at the “bulls-eye” or expected target. Being accurate is your ability to get your shots close to the center; when precision is having your targets group together in a close bunch, though they may not be near the bulls-eye. These ideas are important when we talk about numbers, more importantly, significant numbers. Significant numbers are a degree of accuracy, having exact and inexact numbers. Numbers that are know and certain are exact, while inexact are those who are unknown, for example, if I say a car is $9,000, then that number can be anywhere between under 10,000 and more than 8,000. Only 1 significant number was in 9,000; but if I use a more accurate number like $9,239 then it’s an more accurate than just 9,000 because more numbers are know and a greater amount of significant numbers. Even the atomic weight was changed because we found more accurate numbers that changed the weight of 19 elements.


Cesium-133 is an isotope of the element Cesium (Cs).  Out of the other 40 isotopes, it is the only stable one, and does not undergo decay. Since Cesium-133 is the only stable isotope, it is not harmful or radioactive. Radioactivity can be found all around us, in the air we breath to the food we digest. There are over 60 natural elements that are radioactive when they undergo decay, even the sun releasing gamma rays from the nuclear fusion produced. Natural radioactivity, that is not produced by man like nuclear power plants.