Chemistry Unit: Acid and Bases Lab By: Quentin Tsang Focus Questions for this lab: a) What

substances are acids and what are bases? b) How can acids and bases be identified? Hypothesis: I predict that we can use the cabbage juice indicator as an acid/base indicator to differentiate the different substances. Using prior knowledge, we also predict that Magnesium can be used as a tool to differentiate the acids and bases. Materials Used:
CaCO3, Droppers, HCl, vinegar, cabbage juice indicator, NaHCO3, scoopulas, lemon juice, Fantastik cleaner, Mg, microtrays, NaOH, Windex, water. Purpose: The purpose of this lab to create a series of experiments to determine what substances are acids or bases and how can they be identified. We decided to use the cabbage base indicator to distinguish the substances accordingly. Procedure: Part A: 1. Fill one well of the microtray three quarters to the top with lemon juice. Record what the lemon juice looks like. 2. Use the dropper and put 4 drops of the cabbage juice indicator in the same well as the lemon juice. Record observations. 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for CaCO3 in replacement for the lemon juice. 4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for vinegar in replacement for the lemon juice. 5. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for Windex in replacement for the lemon juice. 6. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for HCl(aq) in replacement for the lemon juice. 7. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for NaHCO3 in replacement for the lemon juice. 8. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for 9. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for Fanatastik cleaned in replacement for the lemon juice. 10. Repeat steps 1 and 3 for Water in replacement for the lemon juice. Part B: 1. Obtain small strips of magnesium for your teacher. 2. Fill one well of the microtray three quarters to the top with HCl. 3. Add one small piece of magnesium to the HCl and record your results. 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with vinegar in replacement for the HCl. 5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with lemon juice in replacement for the HCl. 6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with CaCO3 in replacement for the HCl. 7. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with Windex in replacement for the HCl. 8. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with NaHCO3 in replacement for the HCl. 9. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with Fantastik Cleaner in replacement for the HCl.

Observations: Part A: - Cabbage juice indicator is originally a dark magenta colour. - Lemon juice is a cloudy yellow liquid. - When 4 drops of the cabbage juice were placed in the lemon juice, it tuned a pale orange. - CaCO3 is a white powder before mixing. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice were added to CaCO3 , the powder dissolved in the cabbage juice and a creamy, milky blue liquid appeared. - Vinegar is a transparent, clear liquid before adding the cabbage juice indicator. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice indicator were added to vinegar, the liquids mixed together and turned a bright red colour. - Windex is a bright blue liquid before the cabbage juice indicator was added. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice indicator were added to the Windex, the liquids mixed and turned a darker blue then before. - HCl(aq) is a clear, transparent liquid before the cabbage juice indicator was added to it. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice indicator were added to the HCl(aq), the liquids mixed and turned a bright red. - NaHCO3 is a white, fine powder before anything is added to it. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice indicator were added to the NaHCO3, the powered dissolved within the cabbage juice and the mixture turned a milky, creamy blue green colour. - Magnesium was given to us in small strips. The strips were a dull silver colour and rough in texture. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice indicator were added to the magnesium strip, there was no reaction at first. After 4-5 minutes, the magnesium was emitting a bright blue-green colour in the purple cabbage juice. - Fantastik Cleaner is a clear, transparent liquid before anything added. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice indicator were added to the Fantastik Cleaner, the liquids mixed together and turned a pale, faint yellow colour. - Water is a clear, transparent liquid before the cabbage juice indicator was added. - When 4 drops of cabbage juice indicator were added to the water, the water seemed to dilute the cabbage juice indicator and the water was a pale purple. Part B: - Magnesium was given to us in small strips. The strips were a dull silver colour and rough in texture. - HCl(aq) is a clear, transparent liquid before the magnesium was added to it. - When the magnesium was added to the HCl(aq), the magnesium bubbled in the acid violently and the magnesium slowly began to dissolve. - Vinegar is a clear liquid before reaction. - When magnesium was added to vinegar, the mixture bubbled very violently and the magnesium strip dissolved. - Lemon juice is a cloudy yellow liquid. - When magnesium was added to the lemon juice, it also produced gas and slowly dissolved. - CaCO3, Windex, Fantastik Cleaner and NaHCO3 had no reaction when they were combined with Magnesium.

Conclusion: My hypothesis was correct and the cabbage juice indicator was able to differentiate acids and bases. Based on the results of my experiments, I can conclude that when cabbage juice indicator is added to an acid, it will turn a bright red or orange. When cabbage juice indicator is added to a base, the substance will turn blue or green. I used prior knowledge to design this experiment by sorting out which I believed was an acid and which was a base. Also using prior knowledge, I know that Magnesium reacts with Hydrochloric acid so I decided to add magnesium to other acids and they also reacted and produced gas. When magnesium was added to bases, there was no reaction. Therefore, cabbage juice indicator can be an acid/base indicator and magnesium can be used to differentiate acids from bases. Discussion Questions: 1. What types of gases were created in your experiments? How could you test for these? There was no gas produced with Part A (the Cabbage Juice used as an indicator for acids and bases). However, there was Hydrogen gas was produced in Part B, where I put magnesium with the acids and watched the substances react with each other. According to the activity series, magnesium is able to displace hydrogen from acids. We can test for hydrogen gas by using the experiment with the Pringles can in class. When there is the right ratio of hydrogen and oxygen, the can will blow, the same way NASA sends space shuttles to space. Another way to test for hydrogen gas is to put an acid and magnesium in a test tube, put your thumb on the top of the test tube to allow the hydrogen gas build inside the tube and put a flaming splint into the test tube. The flame will go out with a pop. 2. What was the purpose of testing water? Water is supposedly neutral on the pH scale. The purpose of testing water is to check if it is actually neutral. Based on the test I performed with this experiment, I can determine that acids will turn bright red when cabbage juice is added to it and bases will turn blue when cabbage juice is added to it. There was nothing neutral to compare water to. Based on the results of neutral substances with other natural indicators, they will turn purple. Water in this test also turned purple so we can be somewhat sure that water is neutral. Without a universal indicator that is proven to work, we cannot be sure that this cabbage juice test with water is correct. 3. You are given an unknown substance. How would you determine if it is an acid or a base? Describe three different tests that you could perform to determine the acidity of the substance. Based on the tests we have done in class and with this designed experiment, I can conclude that there are multiple ways to test for acids and bases. The most accurate three ways that I think will work the best are the Universal indicator drops, Litmus paper and magnesium or any other element able to displace hydrogen from acids, but Mg is the strongest on the activity series. The Universal indicator will be added to the acid or base and the substance will turn a specific colour based on the pH scale. The Litmus paper will test for acidity in acids and will turn a specific colour based on the instruction package. Magnesium will react to acids to displace the hydrogen, but when used with bases, there will be no reaction. These are three ways to differentiate an acid from a base.