Favorite Colors of the Unit

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE COLORFUL DEMO AND WHY?

"My favorite colorful demo was the green to pink lemonade or the blowing down the pH scale because it showed the colors of the pH scale and it was pretty colors (:"

"MY FAVORITE ONE WAS THE RAINBOW VOLCANO! unlike the rest of the demos, we were able to see how the colors experienced ALL the different numbers (parts?) of the pH scale. We actually could see what ingredients added would cause what kind of a reaction and how strong/weak bases/acids react."

"I thought all of the demos were about the same to be honest"

"Rainbow volcano because it showed all the colors of the CJ pH scale and it was a good review of unit 6 that we learned so far."

Whether the colorful demos were liked because of the wide variety of colors or because of the cool observations and experiments, Chemistry Honors just isn't the wonderful world of chemistry without them!

Beautiful Hair Day

Want to have beautiful hair? Then consider studying the chemistry.

Acids help dissolve soap scum and smooth hair.
Bases dissolve hair.

That explains why most shampoos are slightly acidic!

Grecian Formula, which re-darkens hair for graying people, is all a chemical change. It produces a pigment similar to melanin (the pigment in skin and hair) that attaches to the proteins in hair, so that, gradually, gray hair becomes darker.

At hair salons, hair dressers use hydrogen perioxide, H2O2, to dye hair. You could technically do a DIY home version, but the perioxide at Walmart won't do you any good! The one Mr. Bender bought was only 3% perioxide ):

I personally found this discussion interesting; As I girl with long hair who gets annoyed by split ends, it was fun to finally learn how shampoo and conditioner worked. Priya Shah, from period 7, also agreed with me, adding "It was fun to learn something applicable to life right now, and nice to learn something other than math related things".

GAH! UNIT 5 Exam!

What day is April 27?
UNIT 5 EXAM DAY!

Right before CST's, the wonderful students of Chemistry Honors took their Unit 5 Exam, which included a 20 minute No Calculator objective portion along with a 25 minute Calculator free response portion. Overall, the entire class did pretty good with the highest score a 42/40. Here are some students' responses to our question
How did YOU do on the last exam?

"I didn't do well on it, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I just got a pHast 40 so I think that was a big factor in how I did. I did feel the test was rushed because I made mistakes that I could have caught granted I had more time to do so. It definitely hurt my grade but it's really my responsibility to fix it, so it's fine." --Sayoni Saha

"I got an A on the last exam. I did worse than I thought because I answered every question and I knew how to do everything, but Mr. Bender's calculator and I did not cooperate well so my answers were wrong even though all my work was right :'( I thought the time and difficulty of the test were okay -- it actually took a lot less time than I expected. Studying definitely paid off. I skimmed through all the CHIPs and I wouldn't have gotten my grade if I didn't do that." --Michelle Chang

"I got a B on the last exam and I guess I didnt study ENOUGH for the exam but i still did so i was kind of disappointed, but all the questions were fair and i was just careless in my mistakes (:" --Priya Shah

"Basically I think I guess I didn’t study that well because I got pretty much a low score. I could have studied more because there were some things I didn’t understand before taking the test. But I thought I did a lot better than what I actually got because I did study a lot…and slept kinda late….i think I just have bad luck or something. I need a placebo." --Anonymous

Though there were mixed reactions to exam scores and feelings of disappointment or content, it seems like everyone does agree on one thing: studying pays off :)

Have a Placebo! It'll make you alllll better.

CRAAAAZY FOR PLACEBOS!

Chemistry Honors first glimpsed placebos in a short clip that included placebos from Mulan (lucky cricket), Kung Fu Panda (secret ingrediant), and Mary Poppins (spoonful of sugar). Later, we watched London from Suite Life on Deck receive a placebo to make her smarter--smartlipstick and smartperfume. We also watched a scene from Family Guy, where the family's anger problems were solved by "mood elevators" (which were, in fact, sugar pills).

So what are placebos?

Placebos are usually sugar or water pills that have absolutely no effect. But because the consumer believes that the placebo will cure them, it actually does. Placebos can also be injections, and even surgeries. They are generally 33%-67% effective.

Fact:
White Pills < Colored Pills
& Pill < Injection
because of how the brain perceives effectiveness.
Isn't it funny how the human mind can trick itself?

Nocebos are placebo's evil twin. They are harmless substances that cause harm because the consumer believes they are harmful. For example, during a study in Japan, a man was given a harmless leaf but was told it was poison ivy. Though the leaf had no effect on him, the man developed a rash!

Placebo: I shall please
Nocebo: I shall harm

We learned that placebos were necessary for the development and testing of new drugs and medicines. And to demonstrate its role, Chemistry Honors even participated in a clinic test!

Using caffeinated and decaffeinated rootbeer, the placebo cpr group was able to collect information on the effectiveness of placebos concerning the relationship between heart rate and caffeine. It was very cool to see it results in person--though I wasn't aware rootbeer even had caffeine in it!

Sayoni Saha in period 7 also told me of her firsthand experience with placebos, in a trial group with medication for behavior improvement in children with Down Syndrome. One mother, whose child had been taking a placebo, was stubbornly insistent on obtaining the "medicine". Though it made for a funny story, it was showed us how powerful a placebo's effect could be.

But now I am a little doubtful. Should I ever participate in a test group, I'm sure I won't see any effects--I'd be too suspicious of being placed in the placebo group!

AMAZING ASPIRIN

What is an aspirin? I can't believe I didn't know one of the most extraordinary medicine until now, even though I've heard about it everywhere. Here's what we learned in Chemistry H. class so far.

What is an aspirin?
-an analgesic agent (pain reliever)
-an antipyretic agent (fewer reducer)
-anti-flammatory agent (inflammation/swelling reducer)
-its active ingredient, salicin, is from willow bark
-too corrosive to be taken by itself, so it's combined with acetylated acid to become acetylsalicylic acid, which is this structure on the right


BUT if aspirin has all these superpowers, why isn't everyone using it everyday?
BECAUSE On top of all these good benefits, aspirin also has its risks and side effects.
-upset stomachs
-nausea
-gastro-intestinal bleeding
-if children who just recovered from chicken pox or the flu take aspirin, they can get Reye's syndrome and die.

Yikes. :/

Still, we learned a lot from this aspirin lesson. Now we know that aspirin isn't some crazy complicated chemical that's too hard for us to actually draw out. "Chemistry is everywhere, even in ordinary everyday things like aspirin," says Priya Shah.

HAHA & BH2OBHOH: Oh yes!

YAAAAAY!

When Mr. Bender first introduced this to us, I was worried. The concept sounded complicated--the acids do what with the hydrogen to how the pH? But when Mr. Bender taught it to us, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't difficult at all! As a class, Chemistry Honors was not at all fazed by HAHA and BH2OBHOH.

Sayoni Saha, period 7, found this new information easier to understand than other things we had learned throughout the year. Though she had a little trouble with grasping the concept, after a quick look in the book, she was set to go!

Also in period 7, Priya Shah too found that compared to many of the difficult thing we had had to learn this year, this was by far the easiest to understand. Though it couldn't be classified as "simple", it was very similar to things we had done previously, which made things easier.

Ellie Shin, in period 2, stated that the lesson was "easy".

All it all, I did feel that this was easily understood by most chem students. It was nice to come back from spring break to this, instead of say, something like salts, which was a bit more difficult.

HOT HOT PINK!

Chem Honors went on the 4th Dr. K-pHun COLORFUL DEMO adventure today! I wish I'd remembered to bring my camera today... D;

Here's some important info Bender told us before the demo:
Phenolphthalein turns pink in a solution with [OH^-] > 10^-5 M.

MISSION? Determine whether the following equilibrium reaction is exothermic or endothermic in the forward direction
NH₃(aq) + H₂O(l) <-- --> NH₄⁺(aq) + OH^-(aq)

First we had to prepare a cold beaker with ice and a hot beaker on the hot plate at 80°C. After we added some ammonia, distilled water, and then phenolphthalein indicator into a two test tube, we placed them into the different water baths, and they changed colors to different pinks!

The result? Solution in hot water: light pink. Solution in cold water: hot pink
So is this solution exothermic(heat is reacted) or endothermic(heat is produced)?

If the solution because pinker in cold water, and since we know that OH^- is making the solution pink, we know that the reaction is shifting right to produce more OH^- in the absence of heat. So in the presence of heat, the reaction would shift left, which means heat is on the right, which makes the reaction exothermic! MYSTERY SOLVED!


Overall, "it was nice to actually see the reaction shift left/right, but it was a bit slow and not that colorful," said Michelle Chang. Even though this may not have been that colorful, it was a definite plus that we were able to see the reaction shifting and that we could apply things we previously learned to solve this demo :)

Bleeding Soap

Day 94;

It's the day back from spring break and we're already at Dr. K-pHun's Colorful Demo #3! Here's what happened:

Mr. Bender got soap.
(In period 7, it was soap from Best Western)
He rubbed his hands on it, but nothing happened ):
But then--!
Mr. Bender put water on the soap,
and it began to BLEED!!

So what happened?

There was obviously something going on when the water hit the soap. We know it wasn't just soap and water, because Borah and I did have a bit of a clue: Borah saw Mr. Bender put some clear liquid on his hands before the demo. So whatever it was he put on his hands made the water turn red!

So what was it?

Well we know that water is neutral. Well it's supposed to be, though the tap water in our classroom is less than pure. And we know that soap is basic (we learned that fairly early in the year). Water + soap = basic solution. SO, whatever that liquid was, turned red in bases.

Possible solution: Phenolphthalein?

Phenolphthalein is an indicator, so would change colors in a basic solution. Check!
Phenolphthalein turns red in bases. Check!
Phenolphthalein would be colorless on Mr. Bender's hands. Check!

Mystery solved!