Chemistry Experiment 2

1. Separating out the Iron:
2. Separating out the Sand:
3. Separating out the Benzoic Acid:
4. Separating out the Salt:

Grams
Percent of Mixture
Weighing Dish
0.5
.5/6 * 100= 8.3%
10cm Paper
0.6
.6/6 * 100= 10%
Iron
1.9
1.9/6 * 100= 31.7%
Sand
1.1
1.1/6 * 100= 18.3%
Benzoic Acid
0.5
.5/6 * 100= 8.3%
Salt
1.4
1.4/6 * 100= 23.4%
Total
6.0
100%

Questions:
1. How did your proposed procedures or flow charts at the beginning of this experiment compare to the actual procedures of this lab exercise?
I had to change the process I did things a little to allow adequate time for the sand and the benzoic acid crystals to dry on the paper towels, and for the water in the paper cup to evaporate from the salt.
2. Discuss potential advantages or disadvantages of your proposed procedure compared to the one actually used.
The advantage of my original proposed procedure was less time consuming. The disadvantage compared to the one actually used would be the reliability of the information. Giving adequate drying time on an experiment in which you are weighing something is crucial.
3. How would you explain a sand recovery percentage that is higher than the original sand percentage?
The sand absorbed some of the water and expanded, or some of the components in the sand is part of another mixture and you did not extract all the components from the original sand correctly.
4. What were potential sources of error in the experiment?
Several things could go wrong with this experiment. I think the hardest part and biggest source of error is extracting each substance from the mixture and weighing it by itself. You have to be careful to extract each substance correctly or you will get the wrong weight.
Conclusion: Weighing all the substances as one should weight the same as weighing them each separate and adding them together.