During this lab we found the composition of an unknown substance using its melting/freezing point. To do so, we first heated up the substance until it melted, by using a hot water bath. Next, we let it cool at a constant rate while measuring its temperature data using an online program. From this data, we were then able to obtain a melting/freezing point for that data, which was found to be 61.0°C. Once we had that information, we compared it to accepted values of various alcohols and acids. We found the unknown substance used in this lab to be Palmitic Acid, due to its relativity to their melting/freezing points, specifically the known measure of it being 62.9 °C. While the substance froze, a cooling curve chart was constructed. It showed the starting temperature of the …show more content…
In the end, my results were very close to the actual values, which produced my low percent error of -3.0%.
In conclusion, this lab experiment went well. I completed the objectives successfully, concluding with fairly accurate data, and thus a low percent error. However there is a small space for improvement within the construction of this lab, which possibly could have prevented the negative error I obtained. One unique error, could have involved temperature probe used to calculate the temperatures of the substance during the lab. The probe could have hit the side of the glass test tube, and been analyzing the temperature of the glass and the air which would have tampered with my outcome. This would mean that the sensor could have read a higher temperature of the air and glass and not the substance. Both would make my measurements for the cooling curve read an incorrect value.