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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: wonzz on March 06, 2006, 03:03:19 PM

Title: Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: wonzz on March 06, 2006, 03:03:19 PM: hi there...
few days ago.. i got a question from my chemistry teacher..
and i still dont get this one.. ???
'Testing the energy from liquid fuels'
this is what i have got...
how do i write a planning on this?
this is my first time to write the planning..so i need some helps.. ;D
and what is a aim of this experiment?

hmmmm... :-\
anyway thx ;)
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: Mitch on March 06, 2006, 05:33:17 PM: What kind of energy? Electric? Explosive?
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: wonzz on March 06, 2006, 06:49:52 PM: i dont know!! thats the problem :-X
she just told us that it is about energetics...
so... maybe about enthalpy or entropy i guess...
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: mike on March 06, 2006, 06:54:08 PM: Are you using a bomb calorimeter?
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: wonzz on March 06, 2006, 07:02:02 PM: oh!! so to test the energy from the liquid fuels
i can use bomb calorimetre as an apparatus!!
i have to write aim, hypothesis, apparatus and etc. for my planning... :o
it is toooo hard for me as this is my first time to write a planning and
i am not that good at english.. :P

thx... ;D
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: mike on March 06, 2006, 07:09:38 PM: Well the bomb calorimeter can tell you the calorific value (heat of combustion) for liquid fuels (or solid fuels for that matter). I don't know if this is what you want to do though.

For example you could test a range of ethanol blended diesel fuels using a bomb calorimeter.

You can look at my earlier post to see how to write a report:

http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=6847;start=msg30791#msg30791
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: wonzz on March 06, 2006, 07:15:04 PM: thanks mike ;D
sorry for keep asking but

'Testing the energy from liquid fuels'
how can i deduce the 'aim' from this one?

ah!! thank you for the links :)
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: mike on March 06, 2006, 07:25:21 PM: You haven't really given us enough information yet.

However as an example:

If you were investigating the addition of ethanol to diesel fuel and comparing their relative calorific value your aim could be to determine the calorific value of ethanol-diesel fuel mixtures of varying composition by bomb calorimetry. Your hypothesis could be something along the lines of; the calorific value of ethanol-diesel fuel mixtures will decrease with increasing amount of ethanol.

You would probably want to expand these a bit as I have just written them quite quickly, and of course you need to adapt them to your experiment.
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: wonzz on March 06, 2006, 07:34:10 PM: really thx for your explanation... :)

but
testing the energy from liquid fuels..
that is all that i have got from my chem teacher..
also she told us, we have to write
-list controlled variables (maybe temperature or pressure ?? )
-measure sufficient data..

cheers
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: mike on March 06, 2006, 07:38:49 PM: What are your variables then? A bomb calorimeter does not have constant temperature or pressure. However you could vary the constituents of the liquid fuel relative to each other.

I don't know what "meausre sufficient data" is implying, but you would need to measure temperature change presumably and tabulate or even graph this data.
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: wonzz on March 06, 2006, 07:42:27 PM: well thx for helping me :)
btw i dont know much about the chemistry yet!
but its quite fun id better working hard :-*
and i should ask my chem teacher or my friends tomorrow!
then maybe i might get more information about this one!!

thx again
CHEERS~!
Title: Re:Chemistry lab planning?!
Post by: mike on March 06, 2006, 08:08:18 PM: Good luck, and maybe post the procedure of the experiment and some of your results so I can have a look.