Atoms

Left Picture: This was from a lab when we experimented burning different chemicals and observing what color they burned. This was copper (Cu2+), that turned a bluish/green color when put under the flame.

Right Picture: This was also from the color flame experiment. The chemical being burned was potassium (K+), which as shown turns a pink/purple color under the flame.

Left: This was from the Mars Lab when we heated MgSO to evaporate the water from it. Then subtract the final weight from the original weight to show how much water was in the original sample.

Right: From our Flame Color lab, when we were trying to make a rainbow with the different chemicals.

Throughout our first journey in chemistry his semester, we learned about about atoms, hows they are made up, and their behavior. We started with learning about what atoms are made of, such as protons, neutrons, and electrons, and what happens when energy is applied to those atoms. When energy is applied to an atom, electrons jump up and when you take the energy is taken away its electrons fall and emit a light wave. This was clearly shown in the flame test experiment. When we added energy (heat) to the atom, a color would show in the flame. The flame color would vary according to the different elements that were being heated by the flame. We also learned how to do mole conversions, which was super interesting to see how many atoms were really in one mole of something and showed how small atoms really are. At first this concept was a little hard to understand, just because it is hard to visualize the conversion from one atom to a mole, but once realizing that atoms are so small that we can’t work with one of them, we have to work with a lot of them, it made sense why moles were invented. I think the most challenging part of this unit was just trying to comprehend and visual atoms. Through the many experiments and demos in this unit, I really started to better understand how atoms work and change through different processes.