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5.1.4: Controls- Oxygen in air

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    Lab #4: Experimental controls

    For most experiments, the interpretation of results depends on a conceptual model of what is happening during the experiment. Controls are a strategy to check whether our model is correct.

    For the oxygen content of air experiment, I made the following statements, some qualitative and some quantitative, of why the experiment gives us an estimate of the amount of oxygen in air.


    The reactants and products of the chemical reaction

    • The only component in air that reacts is oxygen
    • The reaction partner is the iron in steel wool
    • No gases are formed in the reaction
    • Oxygen reacts fully because there is sufficient iron to react with

    Behavior of gases

    • The amount of a gas is proportional to its volume (at constant pressure and temperature)
    • When gases mix, their volumes add up exactly

    Role of inverted cylinder and water

    • Water does not take part in the reaction
    • No gases can get into the cylinder or get out of the cylinder because water acts as a barrier

    Rate of the chemical reaction

    • The reaction is sufficiently fast to remove all of the oxygen within the lab period
    • The reaction is sufficiently slow that no oxygen is used up before the first volume measurement
    • Acetic acid acts as a catalyst (makes the reaction faster, but is not part of the reaction)


    For lab 4, choose one of these statements and design an experimental control (either
    negative or positive) that generates experimental support for it and disproves an alternate
    model of the behavior seen in the original experiment.


    5.1.4: Controls- Oxygen in air is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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