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Gay-Lussac's law demonstration

1/21/2015

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Happy Wednesday!  I hope your classes are going well and that the return after vacation has settled down.

There isn't much money left in most 2014-2015 science department budgets.  For inexpensive chemistry lab ideas, buy my lab book "Chemistry on a Budget" for $20.56 at amazon.com or $23 at lulu.com. It will take a few weeks to get to you, so order now! 

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html

This book contains 13 labs using consumable materials purchased from local stores.  There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report.  This way the teacher has the option!  Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.

My recent blog posts discussed Boyle's Law and Charles' Law.  Today, I am focusing on Gay-Lussac’s Law, the direct relationship between the pressure and temperature of a gas.

Remember that all temperature calculations in the gas laws use Kelvin temperatures:

Kelvin = Celsius + 273 

I previously discuss Gay-Lussac’s Law on 02/01/2014 and two demonstrations were shared.  Check out the videos, one of an egg being drawn into a bottle as the pressure decreases, and the other using atmospheric pressure to crush a quickly cooled soda can.

Here is another demonstration using atmospheric pressure to move water as the air above it cools:


The explanation provides a lot of information for students new to the concept -- it might be useful for review.

This video doesn’t have any narration, but it has captions that contain a simple explanation of the phenomenon, in under a minute!
It’s a student video and omits discussion of the equalization of pressure when the water moves into the glass.

Many labs available on the Internet use a computer pressure sensor and either a computer or graphing calculator.  Some schools have access to that technology and it should be used; however, this is a large expense that may not have occurred yet in your department. 

Maybe acquiring the sensors can be a future goal – talk to the head of your science department to find out what has to be done!

Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.  I hope it helps!

Have a good weekend!

PS:  The current "deflate-gate" scandal with the New England Patriots may be related to the effect of temperature on pressure (Gay-Lussac's Law)!

Here's one discussion:
http://www.ksdk.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/01/21/deflate-gate-could-weather-played-role-deflated-balls-bernhard/22104795/

Maybe this could be a topic for your student's to research...



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    Marjorie R. Heesemann is a chemistry teacher with 15 years of experience who is now working to develop resources for the Chemistry classroom.

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