Third Lab- Magnesium and Oxygen Lab

For the third lab we were investigating how magnesium reacts with oxygen. We set up the lab by putting a piece of magnesium in a crucible and heating it up with a flame. Once the temperature started rising the magnesium started to glow and the reaction happened.

CER- The magnesium and the oxygen have the ratio of 1:1 which means that the magnesium and the oxygen are bonded which each other. When we conducted the experiment we heated it up. This was a combustion reaction because the oxygen from the fire was involved. Once the silver colored magnesium reacted we observed a white substance. Due to the law of conservation of mass we know that the Magnesium reacted with the oxygen because we didn't put anything else in the crucible. However we didn't know the bonding pattern. Since transition metals are not very predictable then we need to find how many moles of Oxygen reacted with how many moles of Magnesium. We found the molar mass of Magnesium and Oxygen and set up a ratio to find the correct bonding pattern. Once we calculated the molar masses and compared them as a ratio the we rounded to 1:1. This shows that they were bonded to each other. After doing the math we know that this is the correct ratio.

Connection to our "Big Problem"-  In this lab we discovered how to find bonding patterns using moles and molecular mass. Given that transition metal bonding pattern's are very hard to predict this experiment helped us understand that. In our pipe problem one of the main elements involved is copper and silver in the form of silver nitrate these are transition metals. Since they are transition metals we have a way of truly identifying the bonding patterns. Once we gained this insight we were able to give you a accurate model of Silver Nitrate and Copper.