Movie Making Madness

Blog Post #2

The past week(s), our lives have been devoted to biodiesel. From making movies to racing boats, it's been a fun break from all the hard stuff that we've endured these past couple of weeks in chemistry. 

However the movie aspect was a bit fun, however my idea that I had planned out in my head, didn't quite work over so well as I had hoped it would. I had everything planned out and ready to submit, until it all crashed on me. I was a bit perturbed after that moment but realized I needed to do something quick and efficient. For the grade that I got, I thought I did good for putting something together in a time span of about 20 mins. 

http://www.aa1car.com/blog/biodiesel_logo.jpg

In conclusion, it was a pretty fun time being able to mispronounce words over and over again, and having to realize that after 14 years of trying to sing, I still can't sing. 

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BiodieselCycle.jpg

Useful Links:
TED Talk-Biodiesel
biodiesel.org
Biodiesel Basics

Put Put Racing

Blog Post #2

Continuing on with our biodiesel unit came the culminating news. We had to build a boat. I'm not much of a boatitecht (get it...architecture but boats instead?...) but I knew that it wasn't going to go well. Of course I had multiple ideas running throughout my mind of what I wanted to build my motor around. I wanted the most efficient and fastest way possible.

My dad was a huge part in this project, because he helped me get the basis of my boat started up, and my partner and I were able to take off from there. The block scheduling had really come in handy as the 90 minutes that we were given to test run our boat and make changes had greatly benefited us.

Overall, our boat was considerably fast compared to all the classes. Watching it cross the finish line in 16. something seconds was a bit of a rush as knowing that my partner and I had accomplished something that we both had viewed as a challenge. 

http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/pop-pop/maud.jpg

Unit Afterthougts

Blog Post #3

Looking back on this unit, I wish I had prepared just a bit more. I thought I knew what I was doing going into this test, but I felt panicky and had to rush to fill in answers at the last minute. I know I can do better than what I had done, but I felt as if I had pushed studying off to the last minute as well, therefore going into the test, a bit unprepared.
Current Mood: Sighing at my life, and grades.

Links I used for studying:
Molecular Geometry
Geometry of Molecules

Resonance and Geometrical Shape

Blog Post #2

In talking about resonance and geometrical structure, there were many factors that go into determining the shape. 

First off, there's bond polarity. When electrons are shared between two atoms, one atom may exert more of a force on the electron than the other one on the other atom. This pull is termed electronegativity. 

The unequal sharing of electrons within a bond leads to the formation of an electric dipole: a separation of positive and negative electric charges. 

http://images.tutorvista.com/content/electric-charges/dipole-force-non-uniform-electric-field.gif

http://i.stack.imgur.com/n7ccH.jpg

Useful Links:

Drawing Resonance Structures

Resonance

Lewis Dot Structures

Blog Post #1

Lewis Dot Structures, are diagrams that show the bonding between atoms of a molecule and the lone pairs of electrons that may exist in a molecule.

http://us.static.z-dn.net/files/d4c/abe41042ec07bc2fb42da8aac975e88a.gif

However, when making these electron dot diagrams, there are exceptions for some of the elements.
Boron is a Moron and only requires six electrons to be stable.
Beryllium only requires four electrons to be stable.
Hydrogen and Helium only need two electrons to be stable.

The Octet Rule determines how many electrons are to be placed in the valence shell. No atom can have more than 8 electrons total in their outer shell. However, the central atom can have more than eight electrons in which they call an expanded octet. 
(Elements in Period 3 and up can have expanded octets.)

We also talked about bond length and bond energy which can be summed up in this video.
Bozeman Science-Bond Length and Bond Energy

http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/fig/ebondh2.gif

Useful Links:
Practice Problems
A Brief Tutorial on Drawing Lewis Dot Structures.

Unit Afterthoughts

Blog Post #6

Over the course of this unit, I had found the material to be quite simple. I usually question myself multiple times over the many different lectures, but I seemed to rarely do that this unit. When it came to the quiz, I made stupid mistakes that I corrected when I had my quiz returned back to me. However, since I was absent the day we took the test, I'm hoping that with additional days of studying I will be able to fix those last minute jitters that make me overthink the simplest little things. 

Spec20 Lab

Blog Post #5
Earlier this unit, we had conducted a lab using a Spec20 to analyze the transmittance and absorbency at different wavelengths of both Copper and Chromium ions. The lab was a bit tedious and repetitive to go through, having to do the same exact thing but set at different wavelengths. 
Although it was interesting in the process of how to actually use the Spec20, I will probably not use one again, if I do, I will certainly be better prepared in how to use one. 

http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/spec20a.gif

Useful Links:
ChemLab-Spec 20