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Empirical Formula of Magnesium Oxide Aim: To determine the Empirical formula of magnesium oxide and to investigate how repetition

affects reliability. Safety Precautions Risks Magnesium may spit into your eyes Glasswear may be hot as it has recently been heated meaning that it could burn you Method: 1. Determine the mass of 25cm of clean Magnesium on the scales 2. Weigh a clean porcelain crucible and lid 3. Fold the ribbon into a loose spiral and place it in the crucible, ensuring that it is laying against the bottom of the crucible. Support the crucible on the pipeclay triangle 4. Heat the crucible slowly using a blue Bunsen flame, open 2/3 of the hole. Leave the lid ajar to allow air to enter. 5. Increase the heating until the magnesium begins to ignite. Once the magnesium has ignited place the crucible lid onto using tongs to prevent the oxygen excaping 6. Every 2-3 minutes take the lid off the crucible checking if the magnesium combusted as well as letting fresh air in. Turn of the Bunsen burner and allow the crucible to cool 7. Once cool, weigh the contents of the combusted magnesium still in the crucible 8. After weighing place the crucible onto the pipe clay and heat for a further 2 minutes. After heating allow crucible to cool. Then remeasure contents on the scale. 9. Record Results 10. Repeat twice to achieve more accurate results Results Mass of Mg before heating (g) Mass of Mg0 after heating (g) Mass of Oxide (g) Mass of Crucible(g) Mass of Crucible + lid + MgO(g)- 1st heating Mass of Crucible + lid + MgO(g)- 2nd heating Mass of Mg0 is 46.92-46.18=0.74g 0.51 0.74 0.23 46.18 46.90 46.92 Safety Precaution Wear appropriate safety Goggles Use tongs or hot hands.

Mass of O= 0.74-0.51= 0.23g Finding number of moles Finding n(mg n=m/M N= 0.51 24.3 =0.02099876.. Finding ratio(Mg 0.020987 0.01437 = 1.460473 Finding n(O N= 0.23 16 N= 0.01437. Finding Ratio (Oxygen) 0.01437 0.01437 =1

Therefore ratio= 1.5:1 = 3:2 Discussion: In this experiment we were finding the empirical formula of magnesium to investigate how repetition affects reliability. The bond between the two elements in an ionic bond, which exists between a metal and a non-metal. In ionic compounds the formula shows the ratio of ions, which we discovered to be 3:2 (however correct ratio is 1:1). To find the ratio, you must first use the law of conservation of mass to find the mass of oxygen in this experiment. The reaction that occurs is a combustion reaction of Magnesium. The combustion reaction is: 2Mg(s) + O2 (g) 2MgO(s). This balanced chemical equation shows what happened in our combustion reaction. The accuracy of our results is quite bad. The correct scientific ratio of MgO is 1:1. However, in our results we found a ratio of 3:2. This meant that we lost some of the oxygen that reacted in our equation. The loss of Oxygen could have occurred when we took the lid off the crucible as some of the Magnesium could still be reacting. Our group also tried to control all variable as much as possible. All of the groups used the same amount of Magnesium (20cm) which meant that we could compare our results. There would also be a few errors that may have occurred during the experiment. Some of these errors could have been due to the scales measuring inaccurately, the Bunsen burner heating difference and change of temperature during the experiment. To address the problem with not all the magnesium combusting we heated the crucible and contents twice to help improve our results. When comparing our results to many of the other groups there was a close variety of results. This showed that our reliability in the experiment was quite accurate. The validity of the experiment is accurate as when carrying out the experiment we followed the aim and appropriate steps that were outlined in the method. TO control the variables was quite difficult as we were unable to control the room temperature. All groups also did not heat their crucible for a constant time, changing results.

Conclusion: In conclusion our results were quite accurate as when comparing with other groups we were close to the actual ratio of Magnesium and Oxygen. Our conclusion that we can draw from our experiment is that the ratio of Magnesium and Oxygen is 3:2. However, the correct ratio is 1:1. In conclusion repeatability is essential in finding the empirical formula of Magnesium oxide as it allows us to create and approximate answer. Sarah Gallagher

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