burning a candle
visitors this year: 65 Burning a candle As a candle burns oxygen is used and heat and water are produced. A few sensors can be used to monitor this process – including a light...
Tagged: chemistry
thermometric titration
visitors this year: 225 Thermometric titration As acid reacts with alkali the pH changes and heat is evolved. This heat of neutralisation can be easily monitored using sensors – to produce a graph of...
acid-base titration
visitors this year: 69 Acid-base titration As acid drains into alkali the pH changes. This can be monitored using a pH sensor to instantly produce a graph of pH against volume. The volume of...
reaction rate: marble & acid
visitors this year: 84 Rates: marble and acid Apparatus Clamps, bosses, & stands, marble pieces (large, medium and small sizes), 1M hydrochloric acid HCl, flask, bung, delivery tube, a good gas syringe. Interface, position...
reaction rate: thiosulfate & acid
visitors this year: 345 Rates: Thiosulfate and acid Sodium thiosulfate and acid react to form a precipitate. The light sensor can be used, like a colorimeter, to monitor the rate of the reaction. In...
exothermic reactions
visitors this year: 124 Exothermic reactions A temperature sensor can collect information about the heat generated when lime is mixed with water. Exothermic reactions are used in a glove heating pack. The proportions of...
heat of reaction
visitors this year: 90 Heat of reaction As acid reacts with alkali, heat is evolved. This is the heat of neutralisation. This can be easily monitored using a temperature sensor. In this experiment the...
scientist 69: the science author – Michael Freemantle says WW1 was the chemists war (2014)
visitors this year: 343 The First World War, that began in 1914, put chemists to work. Their chemicals could harm as well as heal … but on balance the outcome was … horrific. As...
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energy in food
visitors this year: 32 As food burns it releases energy. This energy can be used to heat up water. If you know how much water you used, and how hot it gets, you can...
lipase and milk fat
visitors this year: 563 Fats, such as the fats in milk, need to be digested by your body. They are broken down into fatty acids and glycerol by an enzyme called lipase. You can...
measuring visible change in liquids
visitors this year: 104 Measuring the appearance of cloudy sulfur when we mix acid and sodium thiosulfate is a popular science teaching activity. We can change the temperature or concentration of the reagents, and...
effect of temperature on rate of reaction
visitors this year: 174 If you were a chemical manufacturer you would certainly be interested in finding ways to increase the rate of production. One way is to do the reaction at a higher...
effect of surface area on a rate of reaction
visitors this year: 72 Hydrochloric acid and marble (CaCO3) react to form carbon dioxide gas. The gas can be captured and measured using a gas syringe. A position sensor can be attached to the...
tip for graphing with Excel
visitors this year: 28 Sometimes you need to graph several variables one after the other – for example, in this weather database, we plotted the daily maximum temperature against time. For clarity, we plotted...
data on the periodic table
visitors this year: 24 Datasets (files) like the one below are useful in science. There is data to analyse by drawing graphs. The file below is in a ‘CSV’ format. Open it in your spreadsheet...
exothermic reaction of plaster of Paris in water
visitors this year: 371 Plaster of Paris is white powder you mix with water and pour into a mould. You can make models with it while hospitals use it on broken limbs. When you...
a cooling curve
visitors this year: 3,565 I expect that when something cools, it will get cooler in a plodding kind of way. That’s true, but when something changes state, the cooling is not so steady.The graph...
pH data on souring milk
visitors this year: 90 The label on my milk bottle tells me how long the milk will ‘last’ at different temperatures. What do they measure to make this assessment? Is it the pH? I summoned...
why we use IT in science teaching (1994)
visitors this year: 15 Scientists need to measure and communicate, to handle information and model ideas. In essence, they need to process information. Young scientists have similar needs. When they write, draw graphs, do...
rates of reaction
visitors this year: 300 what affects the rate of reaction? A chemical reaction can be made to go fast or slow. In this activity you will try to measure how a chemical reaction is...
exothermic reactions
visitors this year: 33 When quicklime is mixed with water an exothermic reaction takes place. A temperature sensor can collect information about the heat generated over time. Other things being equal, this reaction might...
acid-base titration
visitors this year: 137 As acid drains into alkali the pH changes. This can be monitored using a pH sensor to produce an instant graph of pH against volume. The easy way of doing...
combustion – burning a candle
visitors this year: 57 As a candle burns oxygen is used and heat and water are produced. A few sensors can be used to monitor this process. A light sensor indicates when the candle...
scientist 68: the crop scientist – Julian Little & products for farming (2014)
visitors this year: 248 This podcast concerns the science of food crops. The growing world population leads to a demand to farm the land several times more effectively than we used to. But growing...
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scientist 50: the chemical engineer – Mark Haw fluid and process engineering (2013)
visitors this year: 215 Hear about measuring the properties of materials that are not just solids or liquids or gases but are all three in one. The soil under your feet is one such material – it is...
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scientist 47: the drug discovery chemist – how medicines are discovered (2012)
visitors this year: 137 In this podcast, a Cambridge chemist talks about drug discovery. Sean McKenna, a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry, describes techniques that take the guesswork out of making pills. We think...
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scientist 44: the entrepreneur – water and fracking for oil and gas (2013)
visitors this year: 107 Fracking was once uneconomic, but today’s energy crisis has led to new options. As the government has issued licences to drill in the UK, there have been protests in the...
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scientist 34: the atmospheric scientist – John Pyle & atmospheric ozone (2012)
visitors this year: 124 We visit the Centre for Atmospheric Science in Cambridge University and speak to Professor John Pyle about modelling the lower atmosphere using supercomputers. Follow-up link: Centre for Atmospheric Science atm.ch.cam.ac.uk...
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scientist 31: the science outreacher at Cambridge science centre (2012)
visitors this year: 125 The Cambridge Science Centre is a really useful educational attraction in the city centre. Founder Dr Chris Lennard tells Roger Frost what the centre aims to do for science education. The Cambridge Science Centre opened in...
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scientist 28: the ice chemist – Robert Mulvanney at British Antarctic Survey (2012)
visitors this year: 106 We hear how British Antarctic Survey scientists drill ice to discover how the world has changed over thousands of years. Dr. Robert Mulvaney of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge talks to...
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