Magnesium Oxide Lab Report

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The burning of magnesium in open air causes a chemical reaction that forms the compound, magnesium oxide. This reaction occurs due to the heat that provides energy to activate the reaction. A blinding white flame will burn as the reaction occurs. In this lab, magnesium is burned in an open crucible over a Bunsen burner several times until the magnesium ceases to burn. This process allows for the magnesium to completely react with the oxygen found in the open air, forming the chemical compound magnesium oxide. However, our lab did not provide us with the hypothesized results, as no reaction occurred when the magnesium was burned, potentially due to an error in the process.

The purpose of this lab is to identify and examine the oxidation-reduction
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This was to make certain that the crucible is dry. After 5 minutes, we turned the bunsen burner off, and the crucible and cover were left to cool. The crucible and cover were weighed on a digital scale. We recorded the observation. Then, we obtained a 60 cm strip of magnesium ribbon and coiled it to fit inside the crucible. We carefully weighed the crucible, cover, and magnesium ribbon together. The total mass was recorded. Next, we heated the crucible with the magnesium in it, but we left the cover aside. When the Magnesium started to burn, we put the cover back on to put out the fire. We continued to heat the crucible for a minute before taking off the cover. We waited for the crucible to burn again to put the cover on again. We repeated this procedure until the magnesium doesn’t catch fire when the cover was removed. After that, we heated the covered crucible strongly for 5 minutes. After the wait, we turned off the Bunsen burner and let the crucible cool until it was warm to touch. To the cooled crucible, we added 10 drops of water. Finally, we warmed the crucible with the damp sample using a gentle flame for a minute followed by moderate heating for 10 minutes. After we let the crucible cool until it was warm to touch, we weighed the crucible, cover, and the content and …show more content…
d. Forgetting to weigh the cover along with the crucible and contents at the end.
This situation will lead to a ratio of too much oxygen because the cover is not on the crucible when weighing. e. Letting a lot of the dense white smoke escape from the crucible during the burning.
This situation will lead to a ratio of too little oxygen because the magnesium burns too strongly in the covered crucible.

Conclusion: The principle of the lab was to achieve the empirical formula of Magnesium Oxide by burning the Magnesium. After completing the procedures, the end result to be a form of magnesium powder, due to it being burned, yet in our experiment magnesium never actually got hot enough to ignite. Our error could have been led back to the flame of our bunsen burner not being consistent due to the fact that it was put out by the wind coming into the room, meaning our crucible was not directly under heat at all time. It also could have been due to our mistake of not cleaning the magnesium ribbon from oxides at the beginning. Therefore, it might’ve not been luster enough for the experiment to

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