Venkat Muthukumar

02/08/2015
Felicia Konopka
Unique Code: 50340
Experiment 1 Measurement and Density
The objectives of the experiment was to learn how to use common lab equipment and learn the importance
of measurements and data. Random error depends on the limitations of the lab equipment and it doesnt suffice and
gives you inaccurate data. Gross error is due to personal fault like spilling some of the liquid or letting the
thermometer touch the bottom of the beaker rather than the substance. Systematic error relates to the device not
being calibrated properly and not being prepared in the correct way. The zeros between non zero number after the
decimal point are significant figure and after non zero numbers are also significant. Zeros between the decimal point
and a non-zero numbers after the decimal point are not significant.
My hypothesis of the densities of coke and diet coke was correct. I thought that essentially diet coke has
less in it compared to coke since diet coke is lighter in the sense it doesnt make you gain weight. The densities of
coke and diet coke had a difference of about .06 and .08 mL. There was a different between each of the glassware
due the accuracy of the measuring device. The volumetric pipette is the most accurate measuring device compared
to graduated cylinder and burette because the pipette only measures 5 mL exactly. In the classs scatter plot it even
shows the volumetric pipette as the most accurate measuring device. If the measurements between the trails were to
change I would feel like the deviation of density would become greater but we would have found the pipette to been
more precise than the other measuring devices but the density shouldnt change necessarily because it is an intensive
physical property. If the temperature of the coke and diet coke were to change then it would depend on how
drastically the temperature were to change. If the temperature was to increase significantly then the density would
have been skewed. If the coke were to boil part of it will go in the atmosphere and be hard to measure.
Essentially I waited for 90 seconds with temperature probe on measuring the room temperature and the
next 90 seconds measured the temperature of my hand with having my hand on the probe for another 90 seconds. It
was to make sure the temperature would stabilize and find an accurate temperature. The initial temperatures were
different at each of the trials. It was because of the heat from the hand was still radiating on the temperature probe. I
looked at the graphs all together and saw how far apart the final temperatures were. The precision was low due to
the first trial being extremely different from the other two trials.
I felt like I should be more lax with my procedures and make them shorter in the later experiments. I do
believe it will beneficial that I learned these procedures to take measurements in the future. I feel the sources of error
were not being able to make my measure meets at exactly where the line meets for 5 mL. Another source would not
being able to cover the temperature probe in the exact same way as I did in the three trials. Also the initial
temperature were different each time.