Persistence to Keep Your Distance…
Wild Photo Archives Posted December 4th, 2019 Last updated December 4th, 2019
Junior Luke Battaglia maintains his course of action in Mrs. Monica Younger’s Chemistry I class, keeping his distance while performing a reaction in which he mixes hydrochloric acid with magnesium ribbon. Studying chemical reactions throughout the week, Battaglia and his classmates just completed a section on predicting the products of reactions. In the lab, students predicted the products of the reaction to be magnesium chloride and hydrogen gas. Of course, one cannot distinguish hydrogen gas from air simply by looking at it, so when they generated the hydrogen gas, they captured it in a balloon. They then ignited the balloon to prove it was flammable gas hydrogen. The heat and flash of light generated by the mini “boom” provided the evidence students needed to know they had indeed generated hydrogen gas in the reaction.