Daisy, Erika, Ivy and I made lip balm in class today. It was quite a long process because a ton of beeswax apparently takes forever to melt into a liquid. Usually, beeswax has a somewhat low melting point, but it takes a while when you have a large amount. This experiment shows phase changes from a solid to a liquid and then back to a solid. The temperature from the hot plate and the room are drastically different, so you can change it.
Looking Back: The lip balm turned out alright. It wasn't the best lip balm, but it was a really good first try. The lip balm smelled really good, but it was REALLY waxy. We didn't have any way to measure the beeswax, so we just kind of guessed. It took a really long time to melt the beeswax, so I'm pretty sure we used too much. We put peach flavoring into the mix to make it smell/taste good. I'm pretty sure we didn't use enough, but it was better than doing too much. If we did too much, it was be way too strong. Our lip balm has a faint peach flavor and you need to put a lot of lip balm on to really taste it. The wax was really hot, so it was hard to pour it into the tubed without burning someone's fingers. The wax dried really quickly; only taking about 1-2 minutes to dry. It was drying up when we we pouring, so we had to keep it in the boiling water for it to heat in between pouring into different tubes. It wasn't as hard as I assumed it was gonna be because we just mixed ingredients and waited for it to melt and dry. Looking Beyond: This lab kind of refreshed phase changes and how something can go from a solid to a liquid or a liquid to a solid, depending on the temperature. Because of the temperature change, our extremely hot mixture changed into a waxy solid in just a few minutes. Just like the candles, if we put the temperature too high, it would overheat the wax and burn the coconut oil, messing everything up. Looking Inward: I kind of liked the way my chapstick worked out. It wasn't as glossy or soft as I hoped it would be, but it smelled and tasted really good. The whole process was just really slow and boring because it was just melting, mixing, and waiting for it to dry. It wasn't as action packed as the rockets or the bath bombs. It wasn't really hands on as I hoped. Looking Outward: I worked Erika, Ivy, and Daisy on this lab. I thought our group worked pretty well. We're friends outside of class, so there weren't any fights or disagreements. I really wish we were in a smaller group because there wasn't really anything to do for more than two people. There was just a lot of waiting around and it was just kinda boring if you weren't doing anything. Looking Forward: For better results, I would've put more flavoring. I remember Andrew telling us it was really strong and to put a little. We put about three drops in when we had a lot of melted wax. It was a really insufficient amount of flavoring. If I could do this lab over again, I would probably try a different flavor and put a ton more. Like I said before, we didn't use as much flavoring. Also, I would work with less people because there were a lot of down time if you weren't doing anything. Takeaways: One thing I learned was that beeswax is very expensive for such a little amount. Janessa warned us to let her know how much we were using because it costs a lot and it came out of her pocket. I personally didn't know that it was expensive and it didn't know what it actually looked. This was Morgan and I's third rocket, Rocket Around The Christmas Tree 3.0. It was a model rocket that was given to us by Andrew. We had to figure out how to put it together (the stickers mainly being the hardest part) and attach a motor given just before the launch.
Rocket Around The Christmas Tree 3.0, worked out amazingly. When we were launching, the wind on Fiesta Island was really strong, making us possibly not launch. We were going to test one of the smaller rockets from Brian's class, but they weren't as prepared as we were. We volunteered to go first, since I had to get picked up soon. It was really windy and I wasn't sure how it was going to work out. I was praying that it wouldn't hit someone's car or someone. Once it took off, it went straight up and started to just free fall. I got a little freaked out because JP showed us how to wrap the parachute and I was afraid it might have gotten tangled. The parachute ended coming out and our rocket was one of the only to be recovered. Most of the rockets drifted beyond the sand dunes to who-knows-where. It was hard to recover it because we mainly just guessed where it ended up. The orange parachute was a dead give away that it was our rocket because nothing else in the plain sand was orange. If I were to do this again, I would do it on a day where it wasn't windy at all. I was a bother to find the rocket because it was extremely far away from the launch site. Our rocket didn't go as far right as the other rockets did and went more in front. I was happy to recover it in plants and not on top of someone's car or in the middle of the road. One thing I learned from the rockets was how to properly fold a parachute the way professionals do it. JP showed us how to fold it and it was kind of a mess for a little plastic parachute. I'm pretty sure it would look neater if it was a normal parachute and made out of something that would stay instead of unfolding. It was a pretty good takeaway because Chase and Liam ended up not knowing how to fold heir parachute and I got to help them. It's was confusing how to fold it at first, but it was easy enough. Daisy, Nayeli, Ivy and I made candles as an independent experiment. We did this lab because it seemed cool and we like candles. Looking Back: I thought the experiment went pretty well. It was pretty simple to make, but very tedious. We had to wait for it to melt the first time, refill it to the top and wait for it to melt again, put the scented wax in and melt it, and finally the crayon had to melt for color. It was so time consuming that it took two days just to get through everyone's. I personally thought the candles were so cute because we all decided to add glitter and chose colors that would match them. Our experiment was very cautious of the potential hazards. We were aware of getting burned by the hot plate and the pot, which was boiling water. It was also cautious of how much power we used. Many other people were using the outlets and sometimes the fuses would blow out. It was really frustrating because the water wasn't as hot as it should've been and it took 10x longer. Looking Beyond: The experiment contained the phase of melting. It's when you add energy to a solid object and it melts into a liquid. The energy, in this case, was the heat of the hot plate. The temperature also has to do with melting. If it was too high, it could potentially overheat the wax and it wouldn't turn out as well. Looking Inward: I thought we got our desired results. It was simply to make and we had many tips given to us by others who had done the lab before. We did my candle before I left and I noticed that the wick would come out easily if you tried to straighten it out. My ended up crooked, but I helped the rest of my group by carefully pulling the wick to be straight and taping it to a ruler. Ivy's actually turned out center instead of mine, which is off centered and probably won't work as well. Looking Outward: I worked with Ivy, Daisy, and Nayeli. I thought our group was pretty good. We all worked well with each other during the lab. Next time, I wish someone in our group wasn't doing another lab at the same time. For example, Nayeli was switching back and forth with the bismuth experiment with Marco and Dimitri and our project. Looking Forward: To get better results, I should've used a ruler to center my wick out because it was all over the place. None of us anticipated that it was going to come out of the post. I was surprised that it happened. I didn't read anywhere that it was easy to takeout, so I didn't think much of it. If I could do it again, I would have a wider variety of scents because most of them were Christmas ones and it's not Christmas time. Also, I would do different colors in the candle because we were only doing one color for each person. I saw cone candles at Urban Outfitters and they had different colors of wax in it. It would burn and would show the other layers. Takeaways: One thing I took away was that wax is really hard to get off of things. It was really soft and got all over my hands. It took a lot of scrubbing to take it off. |
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May 2015
CarminaHi! This is my chemistry blog for the second semester of the 10th grade. Categories |