Today in Chemistry 11 we ran a total of 4 experiment exploring water polarity.

Paper Chromatography

In this experiment we had a piece of paper with food coluring on it dipped into water. We watched the water go up the piece of paper and take the colouring with it. I used green food colouring so I also got to see it split into yellow and blue.

The food colouring didnt go up all the way with the water. This is because the paper and the water were fighting over bonding with the food colouring. In the end the paper won as the water kept goin leaving the food colouring behind.

Oil, water and soap mix

In this experiment we put some water into a test tube to which we added oil. The oil and water stayed seperated even after tyring to mix them together.

After I added soap to the tube before mixing the soap stayed inbetween the oil and water. After mixing the consistency of the soap and oil was snotty.

Lycopodium Powder

I covered the surface of a dish with water which I then sprinkled a layer of lycopodium powder over. The powder stayed on top of the powder. I then took a q-tip dipped in soap and put it in the cencter of the dish. The powder repelled rapadly away from the soap to the edges of the dish.

Water Tension

Not much to say about this one. The water was able to keep its bond between eachother even when there wasn’t anything supporting it from the sides.

There are a lot of things that dissolve in water, after all it is called the universal solvent. Water is called the universal solvent because it can disolve more substances than any other liquid. Even with the fact that it can dissolve the most things by default, a lot of things are made so that they can dissolve in water and it’s also the reason we are switching to things like paper straws. So what are some things that can dissolve in water? Right of the top of our head we can say salt and sugar, two simple substances. That brings up the question, is it that water can dissolve salt and sugar or can all other liquids as well?

The Experiment

So because of our internet problems we ended up doing an experiment in class to see what can dissolve in water. What we ended learning though is that not all  liquids can dissolve sugar and salt.

First I measured about 0.4 grams of salt and sugar in 1 tube each, next I filled the tubes with approximatly 12ml of water each. After a good shake both the salt and sugar had dissapeared dissolving into the water.

Next I did the same thing but with the rubbing alcohol which didnt dissolve the sugar or the salt which was really surprising to me.

Conclusion

In conclusion we learned that water is more capable of dissolving than rubbing alcohol and that even though we use it all the time it’s a pretty cool and intresting thing.

https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/water-universal-solvent?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects