Industrial Titration

Titration is the process of determining the concentration of a substance by using the smallest amount of a known concentration of a substance within a known volume. The way to determine the concentration in class, is by adding amounts of reagent to a known volume of a solution with a burette, until a color change was observed.




Titration is used in the wine industries. Winemakers must get the proper amount of acid into their wines. Too much acid can make the wine taste tart and sour. Too little acid can make the wine tastes flat and dull. Winemakers use titration to get the perfect acid blend to use with a certain amount of sugar, alcohol, and three main acids; tartaric acid, malic acid, and citric acid. There are many types of wine, and each type requires a different acidity level. For example, dry white wines require .65-.75% acidity, dry red wines .60-.70%, sweet white wines .70-.85%, and sweet red wines .65-80% acidity.

Reaction to Reactions

Why should anyone be aware of chemical reactions? Chemical reactions are apart of everyday life. There are chemical reactions happening every where around us. Chemical reactions show us how molecules interact and how things work. There are reactions going on in photography, fireworks, and even when a person is breathing.

Another reaction happening in everyday life is when someone starts their car. Inside the car, the battery produces electrical charges through a chemical reaction. The battery has plates of lead and plates of lead oxide, which are fixed into a solution of water and sulfuric acid. The acid responds to the lead plates and changes the lead oxide into lead sulfate. The chemicals then produce electricity to transfer through wires in order to turn on lights and start the ignition. During recharge of the battery, the reaction reverses in direction. The recharge changes lead sulfate back to lead and lead oxide. The chemical reactions continue to happen when the car is recharged and discharged. The chemical equation for this reaction is, 
PbO2+Pb+2H2SO4 --> 2PbSO4+2H2O

Silk and the Samurai Sword

Silk and the Samurai Sword both have gone through chemical changes to be created.

Silk has gone through a chemical change in which water turns into protein fiber. Silk solution is set at room temperature and lets protein fibers assemble. The solution is then boiled and the fibers are detached while the water evaporates. Which creates silk.



The Samurai Sword goes through a chemical change by mixing iron and charcoal to make steel. This happens when iron and charcoal are heated together. After steel is made and heated, it is separated into two groups; low carbon and high carbon, Low carbon allows shock absorption, and high carbon is used for the edge of the sword. A blacksmith will shape the high carbon steel so low carbon will be able to fit in. Later the sword is heated again and then placed in water to cool to create a curve on the sword. Which creates a Samurai Sword.

Moles

What are moles? Moles are unit of measurement for chemicals, just like grams is a unit for weight. A mole is a quantity of a chemical that contains 6.02*10^23.This number was determined by an Italian chemist named Amedeo Avogadro, so we call that number 6.02*10^23. In a chemical equation, moles are used to show how much of a chemical is needed to balance an equation. A mole is the atomic weight of a molecule of a chemical in grams. For example, a mole of oxygen(O) is 16 grams because its atomic weight is 16, and a mole of water(H2O) is 18 grams.

Baby Bottle Lab

This past week in class we did a lab using baby bottles. This was a really fun lab. We had to create a formula with baking soda and vinegar to shoot a baby bottle 600cm. The formula looked a little something like this, NaHCO3 + CH3COOH --> H2O + CO2. We had to figure out the best amount of vinegar to use with a certain amount of baking soda so there would be no excess vinegar. Here's an example, if you had 8g of baking soda, you would use this calculation: 8gNaHCO3/1*1molNaHCO3/84gNaHCO3*1molCH3COOH/1molNaHCO3*
60gCH3COOH/1molCH3COOH*100gvinegar/5gace acid
This would give you 114.29g of vinegar. I tried this many times with with different amounts of baking soda. My trial runs were making it to 550cm and 600cm, until the top of my lid blew off on one of the trial runs. So, then i had to use a new bottle with new amounts, but i was still able to reach 550cm. I believe this lab was the funniest I've done so far.

When i get done with high school i want to? I'm really not to sure what I want to do. But I am sure I would love to have huge soccer career. But if that plan doesn't go through the way I want it to, I would like to go into a field of engineering or biology. I would like to be an engineer because I like math and it come pretty easy to me. The specific type of biology I would like to do is marine biology because I would like to live near the ocean and also think I would like working with animals.