Exothermic Reaction Lab Report

In our experiment, to look deeper into exothermic reactions, we first had to create our own calorimeter. We did this using 3 separate 8 ounce Styrofoam cups, one for each compound. We then used cardboard to create a lid for each cup and taped it to the sides so the seal would be as tight as we could make it. We also needed a 150mL beaker to measure out the 50 mL of distilled water that we used in each trial to dissolve each compound in. To weigh out each compound we also needed an electronic balance. After each compound was added to the 50mL of water we used a magnetic stirrer and a stir plate to dissolve the compound and then a thermometer to measure both the initial and final temperatures of the compounds.
Before we began our experiment it was necessary to look into the MSDS …show more content…
Once we had evaluated each compound we began to create our calorimeter. We cut cardboard lids to fit each of our Styrofoam cups and taped the lids onto the cups. We then poked a small hole through the cardboard, just big enough so that our thermometer could fit through. Next, we used our 150 mL beaker to measure 50 mL of distilled water and added it to our calorimeter. Then we took the initial temperature of the water in the calorimeter and made sure to record the temperature in Celsius in our lab notebooks. Our next step was to measure out 1 gram of Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO4) using the electronic balance. We then added the compound into the water inside the calorimeter along with a magnetic stirrer pill. We placed the calorimeter on the stir plate and allowed it to stir the compound for one minute on level 5. After one minute we turned off the