Basic Lab Techniques

Basic Laboratory Techniques

Purpose: To learn the use of common, simple laboratory equipment; to create a hydrogengenerator for future use.

Equipment: Analytical balance, 250-mL beaker, 50-mL Erlenmeyer flasks, 100-mLgraduated cylinder, barometer, clamp, test tube, Bunsen burner, rubber hose, meter stick,
8-mL pipet, rubber bulb, ring stand, iron ring, wire gauze, thermometer, U tube, triangular file, 500-mL Florence flask, thistle tube, wing tip (for burner), cooling pad, rubber hosing connectors, penny, open stopper
Materials: ice, distilled water, glycerine, glass tubing
Introduction: Chemistry is a science that relies heavily on experiments. These experiments are conducted in hopes of obtaining observations that can be interpreted into results that confirm or refute the scientist’s hypothesis. There are several basic, necessary procedures and systems that every chemist must be familiar with.
The most basic of these skills is measurement. Since all measurement is uncertain, a chemist must be skilled at reading instruments and at reporting observed measurements with the proper uncertainty. A chemist must be familiar with the International System of
Units (SI), as this is the preferred system of measurement in the scientific realm. The base units of the SI system are the meter for length, the gram for mass, the Kelvin for temperature, and the second for time. From these units, other units are derived; for example, the cubic decimeter is used to measure volume. The more standard, metric equivalent of the cubic decimeter is the liter. In addition, the derived unit used to measure density is the gram per milliliter.
The instrument used to measure mass is the analytical balance, which is accurate to four decimal places (.0001 g). The instrument used to measure length is the meter stick, which is accurate to 2 decimal places (.05 cm). The