Magnesium Ribbon Experiment

The people in this experiment were Ashley Hoffman (that's me!), Liz Bonnett, and Gabbie Morgan.  This experiment was done sometime last week.

Materials:
~Goggles
~Crucible
~Three 3 cm Mg ribbons
~Ruler
~Electric Balance
~Bunson Burner
~Test tube stand with no test tube
~Holder to connect to stand
~Triangle thing to put crucible on
~Gas
~Gas knob and spout
~Tube to connect gas spout to bunson burner
~Tong-like things
~Matches

Procedure:
Mass three 3 cm long Mg ribbons.  Set everything up then light a match above the bunson burner, turn the gas knob a quarter of the way.  Hold the ribbon with the tong-like things and hold the Mg over the fire (don't look at it directly).  Once a bright light is formed put the Mg in the crucible and turn off the gas.  Repeat the process two more times, the only difference would be to turn the knob half way the 2nd time and three quaters of the way the 3rd time.  For each trial record the amount of time it took the Mg to light on fire from the point it was put in the fire to the point the bright light shows.

Problem:  What is the best way to ignite magnesium ribbon?  The purpose of this experiment was to find the best way to ignite magnesium ribbon.

The independent variable was the amount of gas used to light on fire through the bunson burner.  The gas knob was turned one quater of the way for the 1st experiment, half way turned the 2nd time, and three quaters of the way turned the 3rd time.

The dependent variable was time, specifically the amount of time it took to ignite the magnesium ribbon in seconds.

The controls of the experiment were how long the Mg ribbon was (3cm), the tong-like thing that was used to hold the Mg ribbon, the hight of the crucible above the bunson burner, the placement of the bunson burner beneath the crucible, the type of gas used, and the way of lighting the gas (with matches).

The quantitative data is:
~Experiment 1:  It took 11.0 seconds to ignite.  Mass of Mg ribbon before burning was .05 g.
~Experiment 2:  It took 7.0 seconds to ignite.  Mass of Mg ribbon before burning was .04 g.
~Experiment 3:  It took 5.0 seconds to ignite.  Mass of Mg ribbon before burning was .05 g.
~~Length of each Mg ribbon before igniting was 3 cm.

The qualitative data is:

~Bright white light.
~Once in crucible it looked steamy and yellowish.

~Before igniting the Mg ribbon was silver and shiny.

~After igniting the Mg ribbon was white and rough looking.

Questions:

2.  What kind of energy was released by the reaction?  What can you conclude about the product of this reaction?

   ~The types of energy released were heat and light energy.  The product of the reaction was different than the original Mg going into the experiement.  The Mg most likely combined with elements in the air.

3.  How do you know that the magnesium metal reacts with certain components of the air?

    ~Before being in high temperature the Mg was not reacting to the components in the air, yet when put in high temperature it was obvious that the Mg was reacting with something in the air due to the bright light formed.

4.  Magnesium reacts with both oxygen and nitrogen from the air at high temperature of the crucible.  Predict the chemical formulas for both products.  Write the names of these two compounds.

    ~MgO and Mg3N2. Magnesium Oxide and Magnisium Nitride.

5.  The product formed from magnesium and oxygen is white, and the product formed from magnesium and nitrogen is yellow.  From your observations, which compound makes up most of the product?

    ~Magnesium Oxide makes up most of the product because the bright white light was much larger and lasted a lot longer than the little bit of yellow.