Title- Hindenburg Lab

Purpose- To find out the amount of Hydrogen gas produced when Zinc and Hydrochloric Acid react.

Procedure- The necessary materials for this lab are: 1 plastic container (preferably the one you use to store all of your equipment in) 1 test tube, 1 rubber hose/glass bend, rubber stopper, 1 graduated gas measuring tube (burette), 1 beaker, 1 graduated cylinder, 1 ring stand/test tube clamp/burette clamp, and of course safety goggles. Place the burette in the ring stand and the test tube in the test tube clamp on the opposite side. Fill your bucket full of water as well as the burette and place it back in the burette clamp but keep the end of the burette under water so none runs out. Connect one end of the rubber hose to the piece of glass and put the other end into the burette. Also connect the other end of the piece of glass to the rubber stopper.

Now, to get started, you and your partner must measure out an amount of zinc and hydrochloric acid. For this lab, you should always measure out 10ml of HCl. The amount of zinc that is needed is very, very minimal. We found that an amount under 1g is plenty for the initial experiment. To begin the experiment, place the measured amount of zinc and HCl in to the test tube, immediately seal off the test tube with the rubber stopper. All you can do now is watch the zinc and HCl react to form hydrogen gas and fill the burette. The gas displaces the water and you are left with a burette filled with hydrogen. This is called water displacement.

Calculate the amount of hydrogen in the burette by reading the numbers on the side. You can be accurate to the nearest hundredth. Now, you must turn that volume into moles to figure out your percent error. You must also do the same with the zinc. First, let’s figure out the zinc. The formula used is Zn g x 1/65. Let’s say you had .08g of zinc. You would take .08/65, for 65 is the atomic weight of zinc. The amount of moles you get is .0012. To figure out how much hydrogen you have you first need to measure out the volume. Say it is 26.5. Then you take 26.5 divided by 1000 and that number dived by 22.4. You would arrive at .0012 moles. Therefore the percent error is zero. That means that Tainter and I just aced another experiment and lab.

Now the fun part of the lab begins. Once you have completed the important part, you can start blowing stuff up. First, find a large beaker with a long neck and small opening. We used an Erlenmeyer flask. Fill it exactly with 2/3 water and 1/3 oxygen. Do the same experiment only with a lot more zinc and HCl. This will give you more hydrogen gas to fill the larger container. When the hydrogen has displaced all of the water, slowly lift it out of the water tub while keeping it upside down. Once out of the water, cover the mouth with your hand and light a match. Slowly tilt the flask skyward while following it with the lit match. Once enough hydrogen has been released, it reacts with the flame creating water. A large explosion should occur if done correctly.

 

Data-

Trial gZn Moles Zn Volume H Moles H % Error

1

.55

.0085

65

.0029

65.9

2

.09

.0014

28.5

.0013

7.1

3

.08

.0012

26.5

.0012

0

*Only 3 trials were given to save on paper. We actually did 7, but the first 5 were real $@#%!.

 

 

Observations- What we saw happening was the zinc reacting with the HCl. As a result, gas was given off in a synthesis reaction and the salt (zinc chloride) was formed. The hydrogen traveled through the stopper connected to our award winning glass bend, which was connected to the hose that ran into the tub filled with water and into the graduated gas collecting tube. The hydrogen replaced the water that filled the burette by water displacement.

In the FUN experiment, we found that a large holding area combined with a long skinny neck and small mouth created quite an explosion. An Erlenmeyer flask did the job just fine, and several other groups got it to work as well. To get this large explosion, the correct ratio of 1 part oxygen for every 2 parts water is highly recommended. When you light the hydrogen on fire, make sure you aim it at someone you really hate cause it’s gonna do some damage.

Conclusion- Although this lab is quite dangerous, as Tainter and I soon found out when that flame shot over and almost burnt all of the hair off of my dad, it is quite fun as well. Some faults lie in the experiment because not all of the gas is transported from the test tube to the burette, which could throw off your reading.

The final trial that we did yielded us a zero percent error. We ascertain that that is a good thing considering we didn’t manipulate the figures this time. This proves that we can actually do a lab and get the right answer without "outside help from above".

To improve this experiment, you could, well, I can’t think of anything. It was great, totally awesome, and worthy of a Nobel Prize considering the fact that you created it yourself.