March 27, 2014

Peter Fenger
Experiment 14.1
Factors that affect Chemical Reaction Rates
I. Purpose
Chemical reactions do not occur instantaneously but instead they take a certain amount of time
depending on the reaction rate. This is why it is important to determine the factors that affect the rate
of a chemical reaction. Is there any way to speed up a reaction, and if so, what slows it down? This is
what we hoped to find out by performing the following experiment.
II. Hypothesis
If we change the temperature, concentration, or surface area of a reaction, then the reaction rate will
also change.
III.Materials/Supplies

Liquid Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Antacid Tablets (TUMS work best)
Sharp, non-serrated knife
Spoon
Stirring rod
Four Test Tubes
Flame Heater
Large Beaker
Small Beaker
Rubber Gloves
Safety Goggles
Sharpy or marker
Sink/water facet
Watch or timer

IV. Procedure
1. Fill your small beaker of the way with tap water and start heating it with your flame heater;
wait for the water to boil.
2. While waiting for your water to boil, put on your rubber gloves.
3. Fill 3 of your test tubes halfway with toilet bowl cleaner, and label them with your sharpy or
marker from 1-3.
4. Put the three tubes in the large beaker, leaning them up against the side of the beaker so that
they stand up.
5. Now take your last empty test tube, label it with your marker as test tube #4, and fill it up 1/8 of

March 27, 2014

Peter Fenger
the way full with toilet bowl cleaner.
6. Use tap water to dilute the toilet bowl cleaner until the test tube is full like the other test
tubes.
7. Now place test tube #4 into the large beaker just like all of the other test tubes.
8. Take an antacid tablet (TUMS tablet) and use the knife to cut the tablet into four equal pieces.
9. Now take one of those four pieces, grind it into powder with your spoon, and with your spoon
pick this powder up so that the powder is on your spoon.
10. Now look at your small beaker and see if it is boiling, if it is, then remove the small beaker from
the flame so that the boiling stops.
11. Put test tube #3 into this hot water so that the toilet bowl cleaner in test tube #3 gets hot.
12. Place your 3 un-crushed pieces of antacid tablet into the test tubes #1, #3, and #4.
13. With your spoon pour the crushed tablet into test tube #2.
14. Set your watch/timer for 5 minutes and observe what happens in each tube, being sure to stir
each test tube a few times over the course of this 5 minutes.
15. When the five minutes are up observe what is left in each test tube.
16. Clean up your mess.
V. Observation and Data
1-2. Our beaker came to a boil after a few minutes.
3. Our toilet bowl cleaner was a dark blue color kind of like a jello.
4. We stood up our test tubes by leaning them against the side of the large beaker trying to make
the entire tube easily visible through the large beaker.
5-7. When we added water in test tube #4 the toilet bowl cleaner turned from dark blue to light
blue.
8-9. We cut up a TUMS tablet into fourths and grinded one of those four pieces to make a powder.
10-11. When we put test tube #3 into the hot water it started boiling vigorously constantly boiling
over.
12-15. After placing the antacid tablet into tubes #1, #3, and #4 and putting the powdered tablet into
tube #2, tube #4 (our diluted concentration) was bubbling vigorously on the bottom and was still
bubbling vigorously even after 5 minutes. 1/3 of the bottom of this tube turned white the rest stayed
light blue, tube #3 was dark blue on the top and about 2/3 of the bottom of the tube turned white
constantly pouring over even after the experiment was over. Test tube #2 was totally white on 2/3 of
the top and 1/3 of the bottom was dark blue. Test tube #1 was a little foamy on the top but was totally
dark blue still on most of the bottom of the tube.
16. Tube #2 had absolutely no powdered tablet left, it was all gone. Proving that it probably
reacted the fastest out of all of the test tubes because all of the other test tubes still had some tablet
present. In Tube #3 there was a very very small amount of tablet left almost none but not quite. In
Tube #4 there was still a lot of tablet present, Tube #1 had less tablet present than tube #4 did!
VI. Conclusion
By observing the amount of antacid left after a certain amount of time (5 minutes) we where
essentially learning about chemical reaction rates experimentally. Since test tube #4 had a lot of tablet
left after five minutes, the reaction in test tube #4 proceeded rather slowly. Also since there was little
antacid left in test tubes #3 and #2, the reaction proceeded rather quickly in those test tubes. Lastly,

March 27, 2014

Peter Fenger
since there was still tablet left in test tube #1 the reaction proceeded slowly in the test tube. However,
since there was less antacid left in test tube #1 than there was in test tube #4 the reaction in test tube #1
was faster than the one in test tube #4.
Now that we see the relative rates of the chemical reactions, I will attempt to prove my hypothesis by
drawing some relative conclusions from this experiment. First of all the only difference between the
reaction in test tube #1 and the one in test tube #3 was the temperature. Test tube #3 (with a reaction
that was faster than that of test tube #1) was hotter indicating that the chemical reactions have a faster
rate at higher temperatures. In addition the only difference between the reaction of test tube #1 and test
tube #4 was the concentration of the toilet bowl cleaner. Test tube #4 was diluted. Since the reaction in
test tube #1 was faster than the one in test tube #4 we can conclude that dilute reactants lead to lower
reaction rates. Lastly, the only difference between test tubes #1 and 2 was that #2 was powdered.
Because this led to a reaction with a higher rate, we can conclude that powdered solids react more
quickly than nonpowdered solids. The reason of course for this being the surface area of a substance.
Because if something it crushed up there will be more surface area of it than if it remains in a solid
state. So to sum we found that: temperature affects rate, concentration affects rate, and surface area of
a substance affects rate. Thus: if we change the temperature, concentration, or surface area of a
reaction, then the reaction rate will also change. My hypothesis is proven correct.