TPS - Honors Chemistry

Measurement Lab
Materials Required:
 50mL Beaker  Metric ruler
 150mL Beaker  A 3in x 5in index card (Alternatively, you
 Tap Water may cut out a piece of paper to this
 Ice (or access to a freezer) size)
 Thermometer

Safety Precautions and Material Notes:

In this lab you will work with boiling water. Be very careful to only use glassware that can withstand
heat, and take care not to try and move the glassware and water until it has cooled sufficiently.

Part 1 – Accuracy and Precision

Procedure
 Use a metric ruler to measure the length and width of your index card in centimeters, as
accurately as you can. You should estimate the hundredths place in your measurement. Record
your measurements below.
 Calculate both the perimeter and the area of your index card. Write below both your unrounded
and correctly rounded answers.

Length 12.70cm

Width 7.62cm

Unrounded Perimeter 40.64cm

Perimeter Rounded for Significant Figures 40.6 cm

Unrounded Area 96.774cm2

Area Rounded for Significant Figures 96.77cm2

Parts of this lab have been modified from Pearson Chemistry, p. 72

Analysis
 How many significant figures are in your measurements of length and width?
4

 How many significant figures are in your calculated value for the area, rounded for significant
figures?

4,5
 How many significant figures are in your calculated value for the perimeter, rounded for
significant figures?

4,5
 Assume that the correct (accurate) length and width of the card are 12.70cm and 7.62cm,
respectively. Calculate the percent error for each of your two measurements.
 0.01-0.02

Part 2 – Calibrating your Thermometer

1. Fill the glass beaker about half full with ice, preferably crushed ice. If you do not have access to
ice, use a freezer and your own ingenuity to get to a similar point.

2. Add water to the beaker until you have an ice water mixture in which the ice is floating. Take
several minutes to slowly stir the ice and water to give it a chance to thoroughly mix.

3. After about 5 minutes, take the temperature of the mixture with your thermometer, and record
the reading, to the tenth of the degree (estimating if necessary).

4. Most likely your thermometer did not report 0.0 ⁰C. Inexpensive thermometers are often off by
a degree or too. This is fine but must be accounted for in future experiments. Therefore, make a
careful note in the front of your lab journal of what your thermometer reads. For instance, if
your thermometer reads -1.5 ⁰C, that means it is reading 1.5 ⁰C too cold (because 0.0 ⁰C is, by
definition, the freezing point of water). This means that in a future lab, if you take a
measurement of 34.6 ⁰C, you will need to correct for the inaccuracy of your thermometer by
adding 1.5 ⁰C to the measurement to get an accurate temperature of 36.1 ⁰C.

5. Now that your thermometer is calibrated, we will investigate our textbook’s claim that any
mixture of ice and water remains at 0 ⁰C until all of the ice has completely melted. Place the
wire gauze from your kit over your heat source and put your glass beaker on it. Take care to not

Parts of this lab have been modified from Pearson Chemistry, p. 72

 have your glass beaker directly in contact with flame or any other heat source.

6. Keep your flame, stove, or hot plate on low, and slowly begin to heat up your container.
Carefully and constantly stir the solution with your thermometer. For this experiment to work,
you must be stirring the ice water every moment you are not taking a temperature reading. Also
take care to not touch the thermometer to the sides or bottom of your glass beaker. Doing so
will skew your experimental results.

7. Take a temperature reading every one minute while you are heating your mixture. Write down
both the temperature and the time of your reading, correcting the reading according to your
calibration. Continue this procedure until all the ice is gone. Then continue until the water
reaches boiling and has been vigorously boiling for several minutes. (Once all the ice has melted,
you may carefully increase the heat from your heat source to medium to speed up the process
of getting the water to boiling.)

8. Graph the results you’ve obtained. Make time your x-axis and temperature your y-axis. Cut this
graph out and put it in your lab journal!

Parts of this lab have been modified from Pearson Chemistry, p. 72

 9. Analysis Questions:

a. Were all of your first several data points exactly 0.0 ⁰C after accounting for calibration?
If not, how might you explain the experimental scatter?
The first several data points may not be exactly 0.0 °C even after calibration due to
several factors:
Thermometer Accuracy: Even after calibration, inexpensive thermometers might have
some degree of inherent inaccuracy or fluctuation.
Mixing Inconsistency: Inconsistent stirring of the ice-water mixture might result in slight
temperature variations.
Environmental Factors: External factors such as room temperature and drafts could
influence the measurements slightly.

b. At what point in your experiment did the temperature begin to steadily increase? What
was the condition of the ice and water?
The temperature began to steadily increase after all the ice had melted. At this point,
the mixture was purely liquid water. Before this, the temperature remained constant at
0.0 °C (after calibration) due to the latent heat of fusion being used to melt the ice
rather than increase the temperature of the mixture.

c. At what point did your graph begin to level off?

The graph began to level off once the water reached its boiling point (100 °C) and was
boiling vigorously. At this stage, the temperature remained constant at 100 °C until all
the water had boiled off. The leveling off indicates that the temperature of the water is
stabilized at the boiling point due to the phase change of water from liquid to vapor.

d. Does your data and your answers to (b) and (c) provide evidence for our textbook’s
claim?
Yes, the data and answers support the textbook’s claim. The temperature remained at
0.0 °C while there was ice in the mixture, demonstrating that the temperature does not
rise above the freezing point until all the ice has melted. Similarly, once all the ice was
melted, the temperature began to rise steadily, which is consistent with the claim that
the mixture of ice and water stays at 0 °C until all the ice is melted. Additionally, the
temperature only began to increase steadily after all the ice had melted and the water
was heated to boiling, confirming that the temperature remains constant during phase
changes.

Parts of this lab have been modified from Pearson Chemistry, p. 72

 e. Suppose you had an apparatus that captured the water molecules boiling out of your
beaker and kept them contained in a system along with the water still in the beaker.
What would you expect would have to happen before the temperature of the water
molecules in the apparatus could begin to climb steadily above 100 ⁰C?

Yes, the data and answers support the textbook’s claim. The temperature remained at
0.0 °C while there was ice in the mixture, demonstrating that the temperature does not
rise above the freezing point until all the ice has melted. Similarly, once all the ice was
melted, the temperature began to rise steadily, which is consistent with the claim that
the mixture of ice and water stays at 0 °C until all the ice is melted. Additionally, the
temperature only began to increase steadily after all the ice had melted and the water
was heated to boiling, confirming that the temperature remains constant during phase
changes.

Parts of this lab have been modified from Pearson Chemistry, p. 72