Tagged: chemistry

burning a candle

visitors this year: 88 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...

thermometric titration

visitors this year: 279 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: 86 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: 93 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: 531 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: 140 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: 105 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...

energy in food

visitors this year: 43 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: 683 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...

tip for graphing with Excel

visitors this year: 41 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: 36 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...

a cooling curve

visitors this year: 4,497 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: 105 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...

rates of reaction

visitors this year: 378 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: 45 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: 175 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: 71 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 50: the chemical engineer – Mark Haw fluid and process engineering (2013)

visitors this year: 367 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: 377 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 34: the atmospheric scientist – John Pyle & atmospheric ozone (2012)

visitors this year: 400 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: 304 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: 259 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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