Kameron Duncan

Chemistry
Due: 9/28/14
Lab Report: Finding R
Intorduction:
The purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate understanding of
the Ideal Gas Law by finding the constant in its equation, R. Then, by
comparing it to published values for R, we hoped to learn about the
difficulties of maintaining accuracy in the experiment. Using a chemical
reaction of caused by magnesium ribbon, hydrochloric acid, and water
we produced a gas and measured all variables, except for R, in the
equation for the Ideal Gas Law: temperature, volume, number of
moles, and pressure. Leading to our final step of doing the calculations
in the equations with the data we gathered to find R.
Procedure:
First we gathered materials. For this experiment we used these
materials:
Eudiometer
Magnesium Ribbon
HCl
Stopper
Graduated Cylinder
Beaker
Gloves

We used 25 ml of magnesium ribbon and attached it to the

stopper. We created a copper wire cage around the magnesium. Next
we put on gloves to handle the HCl. We put 5 ml of HCl in the
eudiometer and filled the rest with water to the top. We put the
stopper on the top of the eudiometer and put the eudiometer in the
graduated cylinder with the top of the eudiometer facing upwards. The
graduated cylinder was filled half way with water.
We let the experiment sit and came back 4 days later to see how
much hydrogen gas formed. We took used the temperature sensor to
find the temperature of the water surrounding the glass and used it for

Kameron Duncan
Chemistry
Due: 9/28/14
Lab Report: Finding R
our calculations because we could not get the temperature of the gas.
Next we found the volume of gas in the eudiometer. We used Daltons
Gas Law to calculate the pressure of the percentage of gas that was
hydrogen and water vapor. We were able to find a table that listed the
pressure of water vapor at a certain temperature to calculate the
pressure of water vapor in atmospheres. Next we substituted the
values into the equation for the Ideal Gas Law. We changed the units of
our volume from milliliters to Liters and found the value of R in the
units atm*L/K*moles. These were our calculations:
Measurements:
Temperature:303.15
Volume:44.5ml
Daltons Gas Law: patm= Ph2(g)+Ph2o(g)
H2O pressure (found in table online): .0419 atm
1-.0419=.9581
H2 Pressure: .9581 atm
P
V
=
n
R
T
.9581atm*0.0445L=.001 moles*R*303.15K
0.04263545atm*L=0.31181855585K*R*moles
R=0.1367315998atm*L/K*moles
At the end of the experiment we compared our value of R to values
that have been published and repeated. We calculated 0.13 for R, but
the published value is 0.08. Our value may have been slightly different
because we measured the temperature of the water instead of the
temperature of the gas since we couldnt measure the temperature of
the gas and the waters temperature was very close.