Combustion Paraffin Lab

Heat the bottom of the candle and secure it to a cardboard square on your lab counter. Light the candle and allow it to burn for several minutes. Note any changes. Briefly describe the burning candle.

As the change in mass and temperature is small for both candle wax (and paraffin in this experiment), it is clear that there is little changes when these fuels are combusting in their physical states. This means that these fuels last longer but are an unreliable source of energy as a fuel. The change in temperature being small suggests that these alkanes produce poor heat output, however that fully contradicts their high experimental and theoretical heats of combustion and percentage yields. The fact that the change in temperature was so low can be experimental side effects. One being that candle wax particularly produces the extra energy source of light possibly more so than paraffin and even the experiment 1 alcohols. Another experimental error as to why the change in temperature isn’t very large could be due to the surrounds not being a fully insulator set up (calorimetry – experiment 1

From this lab we can conclude that the main sources for energy of candles are oxygen, the wick, and wax in gas form. Although oxygen was not tested, it is know that all candles need oxygen and that when the candle’s supply of oxygen is restricted the oxygen will be used up and go out. The wick was proven to be a fuel when the string in step 2 lit on fire. Wax in gas form was proven in step 5 where the candle was lit without using the wick. Solid wax was disproved in step 3 when it melted into liquid wax. But liquid wax was also disproven when trying in step 4 to light it on fire. The lab successfully showed the process in which a candle burns when we observed the flame. When the candle is lit it is very clear that the wick pulls up the melted

In order to measure the heats of reactions, add the reactants into the calorimeter and measure the difference between the initial and final temperature. The temperature difference helps us calculate the heat released or absorbed by the reaction. The equation for calorimetry is q=mc(ΔT). ΔT is the temperature change, m is the mass, c is the specific heat capacity of the solution, and q is the heat transfer. Given that the experiment is operated under constant pressure in the lab, the temperature change is due to the enthalpy of the reaction, therefore the heat of the reaction can be calculated.

Have you ever wondered whether a candle burns more quickly on a hot day, than on a cold day? Or is it the other way around? This science fair project was carried out to compare how quickly a candle will burn at different room temperatures. The experiment was done by measuring how much of a candle will melt in 30 minutes when placed in an environment with surrounding temperatures of 20°C, 25°C and 30°C.

The experiment can also be done to compare the burn rate of different colored candles.

If 10.0g of solid baking soda is poured into 30 mL of citric acid, then a reaction will occur and an increase in temperature will be observed. Whereas, if a piece of magnesium metal is added to 30 mL of Hydrochloric Acid, then a reaction will occur and an increase in temperature will be observable. For Part 3 of the experiment, if 50 mL of tap water is placed in a can 2.5 cm inches above a burning marshmallow, then through the process of calorimetry the energy content of the marshmallow should be 5.0kJ/g (the value provided by the United States Department of Agriculture).

To conduct this experiment, a candle was placed upright in a pan of water, was lit, and the flame was allowed to fully develop. Then a graduated cylinder was placed upside down to represent an airtight chamber, and the water rose. The point where it rose to was

I could learn how to identity Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and hydrogen and oxygen mixture when they are present through this experiment. Before conducting this experiment, I should know the combustion chemical reaction first to predict right results. The most interesting thing was the experiment for gases of hydrogen and oxygen mixture. Through the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, H2O is produced. H2O is water as we know. So I just expected that flame would blow out due to the water vapor. But it was wrong. The flame grew bigger with a pop and a flash.

To improve the experiment, the methodology could be improved by having an efficient calorimeter to retain as much heat as possible, rather than just a tin can. Additionally, more trials for each of the experiments could be conducted to ensure correct and precise data is collected to determine more accurate conclusions.

The students were able to relit the candle because they followed the stream of smoke was followed and carbon vapors and relights the already-hot wick. No experiment is perfect, during the candle lab many errors occurred. Some of the common errors that occurred during this lab were human, random, and systematic error. All of these errors could change the lab results.

In this project we examined three explanations that talk about (a) candle(s) in a jar and their investigation reasoning to why the labs they did were concluding in such a way. The first explanation resulted that the candle inside the jar took up all the oxygen molecules inside the flask which then lowers the pressure inside and the higher pressure outside the flask is what causes the water to rise up. The second explanation resulted in that the air pressure increases inside the jar because of the heat from the candle, which causes air to come out of the jar and once the candle cools down the pressure decreases and the pressure outside the jar increases which results in pushing the air in and making the water rise up. The third explanation resulted in oxygen inside the flask becoming carbon dioxide which then dissolves in water causing the air pressure to decrease under the glass and the higher pressure outside the flask pushed the water up the flask. I believe that explanation number three is right because the flame causes carbon dioxide to be created and that

The purpose of this experiment was to allow for the presence of specific cations within a given solution. By following the procedures, basic solubility rules were better understood. In addition, qualitative analysis was used in tandem with identifying a formed precipitate along with identifying certain metal species by use of a flame test. Careful application of the given procedures allowed for an experiment that did not call for repetition. However, a beaker was shattered during experimentation due to room temperature water being poured into a heated beaker.

We will be using 6 different fuels to heat up 100ml of water, and find out the changes of the temperature. We will measure the temperatures of the water before and after the experiment. We will burn heat the water for exactly 2 minutes, and check the changes in temperature. The change in temperature will allow us to work out the energy given off the fuel by using this formula:

The aim of this experiment was to test the heat of combustion over a period of time, and the energy required to combust alcohols with different carbon chain levels. It was hypothesised that the higher the carbon chain of the alcohol present, the faster the heat of combustion will occur. Meaning more energy will be released for a higher carbon chain. After calculating the results from the experiment it was found that the hypothesis was partially supported. The reasoning for this is as the alcohol that posses a higher carbon chain, generally increased there reaction rates. However there were a few exceptions to this rule.