preview

Separation Of Mass Lab Report

Decent Essays

First, all of the equipment was obtained and placed on the table. The necessary equipment was weighed using a top loader balance, which used grams as its unit of measurement. The test tube, which held the samples, was filled with water from a plastic squirt bottle. A piece of filter paper, which had been folded several times, was placed over a funnel over an Erlenmeyer flask to filter the mixture in the test tube. The test tube mixture was poured onto the filter paper. In order to get the rest of the solids out of the test tube, a glass rod with a rubber end was used. Also a pencil was used to hit the side of the test tube to knock down the leftover substances. Eventually, the glass rod, resulting in Jonathan being cut and losing blood, broke …show more content…

Some of the substances recovered more than 100% and others recovered very little. Given that the Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter cannot be created nor destroyed in an isolated system, these numbers are incorrect. The sand had more than 100% recovery due to several reasons. Firstly, when dissolving the salt in the water, not all of the salt was dissolved in the water. Also when the sand was being filtered, 2% of the salt did not go through the filter paper, but rather stayed with the sand. This would explain why 2% of the salt was missing in the percent recovery and why the sand had an extra 2%, the other 1% percent from the camphor. The camphor lost 79% of its original mass due to several sources of error. First, the test tube, in which the original sample was held, was broken. Some of the camphor was determined to have fallen out onto the floor. Also when the camphor were being taken out of the broken test tube, some of the camphor was impossible to reach, which would result in less camphor recovered. Second once the camphor was being sublimated, the beaker had a spout in which gas was being released. A majority of the camphor was determined to have been released into the air. Also, since the filter paper was soaked with water, the inside of the beaker was covered in water, including the watch glass on which the camphor was supposed to form crystals. The camphor was unable to form crystals and exited the beaker through the

Get Access