Acid Names And Formula Lab Report

Laboratory Writing Assignment

Acid names and formulas for Experiment 9:

There were two samples for each acid, and an acid constant was found for all samples of both acids.

Mandelic acid - C8H8O3 - acid constant (pKa) for sample 1 = 3.25 x 10-4, for sample 2 = 5.91 x 10-4

Acetic Acid - CH3COOH - acid constant (pKa) for sample 1 = 7.47 x 10-5, for sample 3 = 4.79 x 10-5.

The stronger the acid the higher the proticity because with a stronger acid, there is a higher concentration of H+ ions, and they are more likely to donate an H+ ion if there is a higher concentration of H+ ions. Since proticity is measured based on the likelihood of the acid to donate an H+ ion, stronger acids have higher proticities.

The pH is based on the negative exponent

Assigned molarity of the first sample of Mandelic acid is .02, and assigned molarity of the second sample of Mandelic acid is .2. Assigned molarity for the first sample of acetic acid is .2, and the assigned molarity of the second sample of acetic acid is .4

Systematic errors are a malfunction of pH measuring probes. Possible malfunction in the scale concerning the measurement of masses or an incorrect use of measuring instrument by experimenter. Systematic errors are less common, but easier to observe. If the measuring instrument is malfunctioning, it usually does so in a more consistent way than random error, and it can be tracked and fixed easier because of this consistency.

Random errors are due to potential human error with transfer of materials and solutions. Environmental factors should be reduced to null since the experiment was done in a lab and not outside. Random errors have more influence and are present more often than systematic errors. This is due to the inability of the experimenter to take the same measurement in the exact same way, to get the exact same number. Reducing random error can be

Every measurement is specifically chosen to lead to the actual values expected. If they were off by any amount then this would be considered random error, and is the reason the actual molarity is not exactly the same as the assigned molarity, but it is very close. Each value is only .004 off from the assigned molarities, showing there was very little error here. Therefore, to reduce the chances of this small amount of error one should make sure the measuring equipment is recording accurately by using already known values for comparison. This can also be done by very careful and exact use of measuring equipment to insure consistent results. Error due to environmental factors has already been reduced by about as much as possible because of access to the lab