Entry 2

Hi everyone! 

Today was my first Chemistry Laboratory lesson! It was very interesting and definitely very enriching. We had a 2 hour lesson in the lab, but we split it into 1 hour of hands-on experiments and the other hour was on researching. 

The first thing that we learnt was the main gist of the entire lesson and is a very important skill needed. This skill was how to go about lighting up the bunsen burner safely and learning the theory portion of it too. An interesting fact: Guess who invented the bunsen burner? It was Robert Bunsen! 

We also got to wear the safety goggles for the first time!! It wasn't that comfortable but i soon got quite used to it. The safety goggles is very important as it protects our eyes from getting hurt incase of any spillage etc.

 We moved on to gather at the front of the lab to watch how our Chemistry teacher went about lighting up the bunsen burner. I learnt that there are three parts to the flame. 

1) The tip of the orange flame. 
2) The tip of the blue flame (which also is the hottest part of the the entire flame) 
and lastly
3) the inner most core of the blue flame.

I also learnt that when you open the air hole partially oxygen rushes into it causing the orange flame to change into blue flame. The blue flame is known as the non-luminous flame. Though not luminous it is very hot. The orange flame on the other hand is luminous yet not as of that high a temperature compared to the blue flame. 

After returning back to our seats, everyone had a chance to light up the bunsen burner using the correct method. Once the allocated amount of time was up, we moved on to answering some questions. Soon after that, the teacher went through with us the questions, and also explained in detail what dependent, independent and controlled variables are. 

That was all for the experiment today. 

The next hour we spent the time researching on the different elements that we had adopted. My element that i adopted was Sulphur. Sulphur is also commonly known as sulfur. It is a non-metal and is soft, pale yellow, odorless, brittle solid. It is a good insulator of heat and electricity. It has a boiling point of 444.7 degree Celsius / 717.9 Kelvin and a  melting point of 115.2 degree Celsius / 388.4 Kelvin. It has a hardness of around 1.5-2.5.  Sulphur’s main commercial use is as a reactant in the production of sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Sulphuric acid is the industrialized world’s number one bulk chemical, required in large quantities in lead-acid batteries for automotive use. Sulphur is also used in the vulcanization of natural rubber, as a fungicide, in black gunpowder, in detergents and in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers. Sulphur is a vital element for all forms of life. It is a component of two amino acids, cysteine and methionine.

After researching on it, we collated all the information on a google doc for the entire class to share. We were also given a worksheet to attempt.

Alright, that's all for today, thank you for reading! :)