Baking Soda and Vinegar Lab I think over the course of my life I have done this lab plenty of times. I just never realized that it related to Chemistry, let alone a chemical reaction that you can turn into a formula using the Periodic Table.The Baking Soda and Vinegar lab is the old "volcano reaction " lab, or at least that's what I thought when watching the reaction happening.To explain what is happening: The Baking soda is reacting with the vinegar and creates CO2 gases, like the kind we exhale and that cars produce. This is also what causes the fizzy taste in Cola and other sodas. There are all kinds of other experiments; one blows up a balloon, another blows up bottles. I really don't have much else to say because of the simplicity of this lab.
Along with the Baking Soda and Vinegar Lab Post I will also be talking about Moles.
What is a mole? A chemical mole is a unit of measure, just like a gram or an ounce. It is used internationally so that all chemists speak the same measurement language. The mole was invented because, well, it made sense. Scientists were having a hard time converting between atoms of an element and grams of an element so scientists came up with a "mole."
Avogadro's # You might recognize 6.02x1023 as Avogadro’s number; this number is used as a constant throughout chemistry, and here I'm going to use it to define the mole. Usually, moles refer to particles that make up a certain amount of an element, and we use moles to measure how much of a substance is reacting in a chemical equation. However, you can also measure other things in moles.
Example: A mole of horses would be 6.02x1023 horses . . . which is actually quite a lot. When you think about a mole as 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 horses, it seems like way too big of a number to be describing something that fits in a beaker in the chem lab! However, because atoms are so small there are bunches of atoms in everything we’re measuring. Therefore, a mole is actually a very appropriate way to measure chemical substances.
Another benefit of using moles to measure substances is that it directly correlates to the number of atoms and molecules and grams. A mole tells you what fractional part of Avogadro’s number you’re working with. Example: If you have .25 mol, you would have .25 (or 25%) of Avogadro’s number, which is 1.505x1023 (.25 * 6.02x1023=1.505x1023).
How do you convert Moles and Grams? Converting from grams to moles is really quite easy. The first thing you need is a Periodic Table. Then, read over the specific problem you want to complete and decide if you need to convert from grams to moles, or from moles to grams. After you’ve identified the problem and the conversion, find the element you are working with on the periodic table. Then, locate the atomic weight. If you are converting an amount in grams to moles, you will be dividing by the atomic weight. If you are converting an amount in moles to grams, you will be multiplying by the atomic weight, but if you use dimensional analysis you will not have to worry about figuring out the operations before you do the problem. Dimensional analysis is similar to setting up a table and it is waaaaayyy easier to understand.