Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Vinegar and Baking Soda

What happens when you mix vinegar and baking soda?



Materials:
1/2 cup of Baking Soda and Vinegar

Process:
  1. Have the 1/2 cup of Vinegar in a beaker
  2. Then add the 1/2 cup of Baking Soda
  3. You have a finished product


Scientific:
When these to reactants mix the product is a mixture with both but the color of the product is a pinkish red not like the reactant that is clear. Also bubbles form.

Photo Credit to Chantel Yip

How to Make Clay


CLAY



Mix together:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water
Food coloring, optional

Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is dough like

Scientific:
With heat, flour, salt, and water as reactants you get clay as a product.
Photo Credit to Chantel Yip

Saturday, May 15, 2010

ChemStd Lewis Dot Structure

Lewis Dot Structure

Lewis Dot Structures(also known as Lewis dot diagrams, electron dot diagrams, and electron dot structures) are diagrams that show the bonding between atoms of a molecule, and the lone pairs of electrons that may exist in the molecule. A Lewis structure can be drawn for any covalently-bonded molecule, as well as coordination compounds. The Lewis structure was named after Gilbert N. Lewis who introduced it in his 1916 article The Atom and the Molecule. They are similar to electron dot diagrams in that the valence electrons in lone pairs are represented as dots, but they also contain lines to represent shared pairs in a chemical bond (single, double, triple, etc.).

The chemical symbol for the atom is surrounded by a number of dots corresponding to the number of valence electrons.










For example,

  • Hydrogen (H) has 1 valence electron, on a picture for the Lewis Dot Structure it has 1 dot
  • Nitrogen (N) has 5 valence electrons, on a picture for the Lewis Dot Structure it has 5 dots
  • Neon (Ne) has a full shell (8) of valence electrons, on a picture for the Lewis Dot Structure it has 8 dots


The formation of many common compounds can be visualized with the use of Lewis symbols and Lewis diagrams. In a Lewis symbol, the inner closed shells of electrons can be considered as included in chemical symbol for the element, and the outer shell or valence electrons are represented by dots. The dots are placed in four groups of one or two electrons each, with 8 electrons representing a closed shell or noble gas configuration. Lewis diagrams are useful for visualizing both ionic and covalent bonds.

In the idealized ionic bond, one atom gives up an electron to the other, forming positive and negative ions.









The conditions for bonds are that the total charge is zero and that each atom must have a noble gas electron configuration.

In the idealized covalent bond, two atoms share a pair of electrons, closing the shell for each of them.












The atoms share a pair of electrons, and that pair is
referred to as a bonding pair. The pairs of electrons which do not participate in the bond have traditionally been called "lone pairs". A single bond can be represented by the two dots of the bonding pair, or by a single line which represents that pair. The single line representation for a bond is commonly used in drawing Lewis structures for molecules.

Check Out This Video!!














Friday, May 7, 2010

Mills Creek Canyon Field Trip

Mr. Olson took all of his chemistry students, including me, to Mills Creek Canyon. My fellow classmates and I walked about 3 miles to the Canyon and all around it. It was beautiful, I climbed picnic rock and expolred the creek. It is cool to know that nature is hidden right in our backyard.


View Mills High School to Mills Creek Canyon in a larger map

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Bending Glass




I was taught by Valerie Yermakova(the blonde girl in picture) on how to bend glass. I formed many cool shapes with the glass.


Steps:
1. Put on Safety Goggles

2. Get glass

3. Turn of the lighter than the gas and light the burner


4. Put part of glass that you want to bend in flame

5. When hot it enough the glass will start to bend
Science:
When glass is put into the flame, the glass part in the flame becomes malleble. (Bendable or mendable)
Photo Credit: Chantel Yip

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

IProposeWe Make Handheld Fireballs

IProposeWe Make Handheld Fireballs






Materials:


  • 2" x 5" strip of cotton cloth (like from a t-shirt)

  • 100% cotton thread

  • needle

  • naphtha lighter fluid (ex: Ronsonol™ or Zippo™)

  • match or lighter

Procedure:



  1. Thread the needle with cotton thread.

  2. Tightly roll the cotton strip into a ball.

  3. Pierce the ball with the needle and wrap the ball with the thread. End by running the needle through the ball one more time and break off the thread. And tie a not at end of thread.

  4. Soak the ball with lighter fluid. Don't soak your hands.

  5. Don't ignite the the fireball while you are holding it. Set the ball on a fire-proof surface. For example, a frying pan.

  6. If you want to hold the fireball, you should pick it up with tongs and carefully/slowly set it on your hand. That way you'll be able to tell if you can take the heat or not. If you believe you can hold it, pick the fireball up using your fingers.

Safety precautions:
No loose clothing!


It's fire be responsible!


Don't soak hands with fluid, if hands get soaked wash immediately


It's best to use 100% cotton fabric and thread. If the fiber is synthetic (like nylon or polyester) it might burn or melt, with unpleasant consequences


The fireballs are reusable. Put them out when they run out of fuel or else the cotton will burn (you can tell this is happening when the ball starts to blacken and produce sooty smoke). If you get to the point where the cotton itself is burning, the fireball will be too hot to hold. Ideally you want to extinguish the fireball before it consumes all of its fuel. Simply soak it in more lighter fluid and relight it to reuse it.
Scientific Principles:


Fire is capable of being touched and not being burned using a special lighter fluid (naphtha).

Sunday, March 21, 2010

St. Francis


I was invited to St. Francis for a meet. I did really bad I think. I got 4th place in both and I wish I would do better. I was so frustrated. The top 3 got shirts with placing and I was just one place away from getting it. I guess I just have to do better and hope that centripital force helps me with discus. I pr.ed in discus. Which means I beat my record, so I need to keep doing that.

Meet at Newark

Some Mills Throwers were invited to a meet at Newark. Throwing has to due with science for ex centripital force. I am on JV an d was invited. I came in second for shot put and another Mills girl got 1st in both discus and shot put. Her name was Sabrina Mendoza. I got 4th in discus. I did bad. We both got medals for getting in the top three.

Sadie Hopkins


The day before CSM meet was Formal. It was so much fun. My aunt made my dress it was purple. During the dance they had good cookies and they had good songs. It was crazy. Once in the dance I sucked a helium ballon at 9 pm and all night till I went to bed I had the helium voice. You know the high squeaky one. I was so scared and didn't know what to do. Everyone thought I was faking. The next day I woke up at with no voice.

Friday, March 19, 2010

CSM


Ahh. Today was my first time throwing at a practice meet at CSM. We only did shot-put because it started to rain the whole day. I got 3rd place. I was so happy but really nervous. It used the force and the science to help my muscles to exert the shot-put far. Yay!!!!!

Throwing


I joined the trowing team after soccer. I am very scared because it is my first time to be throwing. We throw discus and shot-put. I hope I am good and not the worse one. I am so nervous. I hope I know people. In shot-put you have to learn about science. Like friction and the CHEMISTRY of your body.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Macbeth


Macbeth is a book by Shakespeare, we are reading about in English. It is about war and killings and how greed for power just blows up into chaos. I also found out that people would get hurt or die by performing Macbeth the play. So now in theatres they don't say it or else they will be cursed. Either it is science like chem or just superstition.

Like Dissolves is a saying used to show how solvents work. It shows that water can not dissolve in oil. This is caused because water is polar and oil is not. This is so cool!!!

Last quad


Today is the last quad of 2010. Aww. This year has gone by so fast and pretty soon it is going to be our junior year and everyone is going to be driving. Whoa. Chem is so cool you find things out you never know. Like concentration.

Winter Formal




Winter Formal is coming and I dont know if I should go. Aaron is going Little T. Ryan is going with Jessica. They are so cute and in love. Valentine's Day is coming and Vanessa got a sercet admire. And guys are in love and girls are falling for girls.

Soccer Game against Cap


We played against Cap and tied and then a just recently we lost against Cap and but it was a good game and we have one last game this year for soccer against South City. For sure we are in 3rd place and that is very good. Go vikings!!!

New Year


This is a new year and it is going to be great. I have a new schedule and it is going to be so much fun. I not in school till like the first friday because I am going to be in Hawaii.