Particle Theory of Matter - Convection
Equipment: 200 mL beaker water, tweezers, a crystal of potassium permanganate, a drinking straw, Bunsen burner heat mat, tripod and gauze mat.
Method:
1. Set up a Bunsen burner on a heatproof mat. Put the gauze mat on the tripod but leave it just to one side of the Bunsen burner.
2. Fill a 200 mL beaker with 150mL cold water.
3. Place the beaker on top of the tripod and gauze and allow it to settle for a few minutes.
4. Carefully insert a drinking straw down one side of the beaker, ensuring the straw is touching the bottom of the beaker. Be careful as you do not want to disturb the water too much.
5. Using tweezers, drop a crystal of potassium permanganate down the inside of the straw. Wait for the crystal to settle on the bottom of the beaker.
6. very gently, so to not disturb the water, remove the straw.
7. Light the Bunsen and slide it under the tripod so that you are only heating the outside of the beaker where the crystal is. Observe.
Observations:
After the straw was removed the potassium began to rise to the top once it rose to the top it began to spread all over the liquid. Because of this, the once clear liquid began converting to this purple colour. In not much time the whole liquid was purple.
Explanation:
As particles begin to heat up they began to move faster according to my teacher "we basically set their bums on fire so they start to run away." The opposite happens if they get colder which is how ice is made since a solid only vibrates. With this in mind, the reason why the purple began to spread was because the liquid heated up causing the potassium particles to begin moving out like a liquid does.
Potato - Sam 2018
Nicely laid out post here Brayden. Make sure your explanation explains what it was you actually observed. What you have said is correct (thank goodness seeing as you've quoted me!) but make sure it links to the experiment.
ReplyDeleteI edited my explanation and observation to connect it more to the experiment.
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