Hydrate Lab Report Essay

During the experiment, we removed the water from the hydrates using heat. A hydrate is a compound in which water molecules are chemically bonded to another element or compound. The removal of the water from a hydrate leaves the anhydrate. To find the amount of water in the hydrate, the hydrate’s mass can be measured. Then the water can be removed from the hydrate and the substance can be measured again. Finally, the subtraction of the mass of the substance after heating from the mass of the hydrate can show how much water was removed. The independent variable in the lab was the mass of the hydrate, while the dependent variable was the mass of the water. The control variables were the temperature and thoroughness of the heating of the hydrate. …show more content…
We needed a triple beam scale, two test tubes, a beaker, about 4 grams of magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), about 4 grams of copper sulfate (CuSO4) and a burner. First, we measured the mass of the beaker and the test tube on the triple beam scale. We then filled one test tube with some copper sulfate. We placed it into the beaker on the scale to find its mass and recorded the mass of the total to make sure we had about grams of copper sulfate. After we had the mass of the copper sulfate amount, we heated it up over the burner until the blue hydrate had changed color to white, indicating its loss of water and transition to an anhydrate. Once we were sure that all the water had been removed from the copper sulfate, we measured its mass to find out the mass of the water that had been in the original hydrate. We repeated all of these steps again with the magnesium sulfate and recorded its results as