Brooke's Magnesium Lab

Brooke Selvage
Magnesium Lab
1-17-11

Safety Concerns:
1. Wear safety goggles
2. Hair needs to be pulled back
3. No baggy clothes, especially sweatshirts
4. Closed toe shoes
5. Dont look straight into the burning magnesium,use your peripheral vison
6. Dont touch the hot crucible until it's cooled down completley, it gets very hot

Supplies/Materials for this lab:
1. Crucible
2. Ring stand
3. Triangle holder
4. Bunsen burner
5. Tongs
6. Matches or a lighter
7. 2 strips of wire
8. Electric balance

Procedure:
The very first thing you should do before you get started, is gather all your supplies that i listed above and have them all sitting out. Then you should cut 2 strips of magnesium, about 2 inches each. Then twist them together/intertwine them. Then you should weigh the crucible alone, then with the magnesium strips in it, and write those two down. After all that is done, set the crucible on the clay triangle holder. Once its on that turn the gas on so the flame is about 3 inches high, then light it. Once you light it hurry and set it in the crucible. When it starts to burn do not look directly at the light, look at it at the corner of your eye as the light is very dangerous. Once the magnesium is all burned, you can turn the gas off. Most likely the crucible will be very hot, so let it sit there and cool down for a bit, then grab the tongs and remove it off the triangle holder and place it on the electric balance and take the new mass of it and record it.

My Results:
Mass of EMPTY crucible: .8485
With Magnesium .0040
Mass after on fire: 0.8515

Questions:
1. Already done ^
2. Magnesium Nitrate
3. I know that the magnesium reacts with certain components of the air because of how it reacted and ignited, from the oxygen and nitrogen in the air.
4. Not sure?
5. I think the product that makes most of the light up is the magnesium.
6. I don't think that the compounds are ionic.
7. Possible source of error: Oxygen.
Real World Chemistry questions:
1. Yes
2. Magnesium Oxide is commonly used for heartburn and sore stomach, as far as over the counter drug.