Schedule

Our Chemical World #2:

Fireworks

This assignment was due before noon on Friday, March 28.

Submissions are no longer accepted.

You have entered the realm of Our Chemical World. What does that mean? When you come here you will typically read a brief introduction, go to a web site related to a particular topic, then return here to answer some questions. Great news! This activity earns a few points of extra credit.

To receive your extra credit points, you must fill out the next section completely AND provide satisfactory answers to all of the questions found below.

 

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A lot of chemistry may seem like textbook stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with your regular life. The web site, What’s That Stuff, discusses and explains lots of chemical compounds that are part of everyday products and materials. Often, the “active ingredients” are simple ionic and covalent compounds just like things that you have learned about this term.

This assignment is focused on fireworks which are primarily ionic compounds.

Click on the fireworks link and then come back and answer the following questions. Remember, the answers are not necessarily all found in the fireworks article, but you should be able to combine the information in the article with the chemical knowledge you now have, your lecture notes, and your textbook to answer the questions.

Fireworks

1. Potassium nitrate is also known as saltpeter. In addition to being used in fireworks, it is used in the pickling of meats, the manufacture of gunpowder and in a treatment process to make tobacco burn evenly. What is the formula for potassium nitrate? Explain the thought process you used to figure out this formula.
 
2. According to the article on fireworks, what color would you see if you were to sprinkle some barium chloride into a campfire? Explain why light is given off. (Hint: Think back to our discussion of ground state and excited state electron configurations earlier this term.)
 
3. Explain why the formulas of barium chloride and strontium chloride are similar.
 
4. Although chlorate ion isn’t one of the polyatomic ions that you are expected to know, you can determine the charge of the chlorate ion by looking at the formula for potassium chlorate, KClO3. What is the charge and how did you figure it out?
 
5. What is the formula of barium chlorate? How many chlorate ions would go with each barium ion?
 
6.

The article refers to copper carbonate. This name is ambiguous because copper forms more than one stable ion: Cu+ and Cu2+ both exist. Let's think about two possible compounds containing copper and carbonate ions. If you knew that the ratio of copper to carbonate was 1:1 in a particular compound, what would be the charge on the copper ion in this compound and what is the name of the compound?

 
7. Explain what the formula of another compound containing copper and carbonate ions would have as its formula. What would be the proper name for this compound?
 

What's That Stuff, a web site maintained by the American Chemical Society, has links to other fun stuff like Cheez Whiz, new car smell, and teeth whiteners. Bookmark it and check it out sometime for fun. (Yes, we know, we are geeks.)

What's That Stuff


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