How Would You Determine Whether The Melting Point Or Solubility Test Had To Be Done?

To determine whether the two isomers were different compounds, the melting point and solubility test had to be done. Maleic acid was prepped from dissolving maleic acid anhydride in deionized water, cooled, then filtered, and fumaric acid was prepped from refluxing the filtrate from the vacuum filtration, cooled and then filtered. Because fumaric acid did not dissolve in water or melt after being heated 3-5 minutes, it is safe to say that it is a completely different compound from maleic acid. Because we lost our maleic acid compound during the lab, we used an adjacent pair’s maleic acid to test for solubility and melting point. This would not give the most accurate result as the fumaric acid was not prepped from the same maleic acid filtrate.