Keiko Dec 3, 2009 4:24 PM

I loved our trip to Westminister. I loved it when the chemistry teacher experimented with the Nitric Acid and the Penny. At fist when he explained the punishments for treason, I really thought he was going to melt the engravment of the Queen off of the coin. When he added the nitric acid to a beaker with the penny resting at the bottom, the liquid turned to greenish-black and started to bubble. Then dangerous brown gases started steaming out of the beaker - i'm glad that the fume machine sucked up and filtered the gases so that we didn't all inhale them and die.

I can't wait for our next trip to Westminister Campus, next Wednesday!

C U @ SCHOOL!

callum Dec 3, 2009 4:58 PM

we also did a penny expriment in which the water turned green and orange fog came out. Don`t worry the penny wasn`t destroyed,it just got thinner!

John Elstad Dec 3, 2009 5:00 PM

It was a lot of fun. I especially liked the acid and sugar experiment.

callum Dec 3, 2009 5:10 PM

in the beaker of sugar experiment , the sulfuric acid attaked the sugar and all that was left was a huge piece of carbon.

Anastasia Dec 3, 2009 6:21 PM

Miss Alex
That was the best trip ever!

Leah Dec 3, 2009 7:36 PM

When concentrated nitric acid was poured over the copper penny, the acid immediately turned a dark shade of green. The beaker containing it slowly started to give of golden-brown fumes, that smelt like a mixture of honey and maple syrup. If a splint that had been lit, then blown out, was dipped into the beaker, it would definitely light again. When water was added, the nitric acid turned blue, and when the penny was removed, it was three times as flat! However, the image of the Queen was still intact, the reason being that when the acid was pushing down on the coin, it was pushing it down with the same amount of force on each side. Therefore when the coin flattened, the picture did too, but the width of the Queen's image decreased in the same amount.

Alexandra Gordon Dec 3, 2009 8:33 PM

I thought it was a great trip too! I was really proud of grade 5!
Ms Alex

Jack Dec 6, 2009 10:05 AM

That was a very good trip and I can't wait until
the next trip there because we tried so many things that I never would do in my whole life like pouring Sulfuric acid into sugar making it expand and rise upwards and the whole thing suddenly turned to Carbon. We also poured a different kind of acid which I forgot the name of into a beaker (cup) and then put 1 penny in. After a while it started to float in the acid and then the acid turned brown because of the copper penny. Oh and by the way the chemistry teacher had a huge container that sucked away any bad fumes so we wouldn't breathe it and die. He showed us an example by putting a wooden stick it it and it turned brown. He said that if it was a person that the skin will all peal away in that area. While the penny was still in the beaker the teacher poured water into it so it could touched. When he took it out the penny seemed to be alot thiner than when he put it in the beaker. The reason is that the acid compressed it but left the 3D queen was still 3D without it being quashed into a 2D shape. It was pretty remarkable. After that we did another experiment with acid and magnesium. When he put the magnesium in the acid in a test tube and put another test tube on top to decrease the amount of fumes. Then the Magnesium started to dissolve and sooner or later it dissolved completly. And then the teacher lit a wooden stick and blew it out so there was just a bit of orange on the burnt eges and then he put it in the test tube on top and made a loud popping sound because of the compressed fumes. Like clapping you hands. It was so loud we had to cover our ears. Then the teacher brought out a container that had oxygen in it and when you put a warm but blown out wooden stick it relit the stick to make it have fire again. Before we went to the chemist lab we went to another chemist lab to learn about chemical changes. So what we did was we had a crystal made from copper, water, and solfer. We burned that in a test tube and burned it with a bunsen burner. While we examined the tube after the crystal turned to a different substance and the colour changed too by turning it white. The reason that it turned white is that the water was evaprated so it lost it's colour. When it cooled down we put a couple drops of water in it and it turned back to it's original substance. I was very surpised. I think this was a great trip because I would never ever do these things at home. The most important thing is that no one got hurt or changed substance.

keiko Dec 8, 2009 6:01 PM

WHOAH! Jack- you wrote soooo much!!!
How long did it take you?