Magnesium Lab

     This is a lab we did on the reactions of Magnesium.  Magnesium reacts with oxygen whenever you get it hot.  The heat causes the magnesium to spark and flame up.  Although ours didn't flame, it through out sparks and made some popping noises.  While we were cleaning up we got to see another groups magnesium flame and make a lot more reactions that ours did.  In this lab we started with a strip of magnesium, a crushable, a Bunsen burner, and a stand.  We weighed the crushable and the magnesium, to start the lab.  Then we got the Bunsen burner fired up with the magnesium in the crushable 7 inches from the flame.  It took a few minutes for anything to happen, but then it started to react and spark.  After the magnesium finished reacting we turned of the burner and let everything cool down. After it was cool we weight the crushable with the magnesium in it, and found it now had a heavier weight.  Here are the exact figures on the weights, and then the questions and answers of the book questions.

Materials                                                   Mass (g)
Crucible and Magnesium                           13.1g
ribbon before heating                                             
Magnesium ribbon                                         .4g   
Empty crucible                                           12.7g  
Crucible and Magnesium                           13.3g
products after heating                                            
Magnesium products                                      .6g  

Questions:

1. What kind of energy was released by the reaction? What can you conclude about the product of this reaction.
Electromagnetic radiation.  The oxygen combinded with the magnesiuum.

2. How do you know that the magnesium metal reacts with certain components of the air?
You can see that the magnesium reacts with certain elements in the air as soon as you get it into gas form.  It has missing electrons on its outer ring that oxygen reacts and combindes to fill in the empty spots.

3. The product formed from magnesium and oxygen is white, and the product formed from magnesium and nitrogen is yellow. From your observations, which compound makes up most of the product?
The oxygen, because it was a bright white color.

4. Did the magnesium compounds and water conduct an electric current? Do the results indicate whether or not the compounds are ionic?
The magnesium compounds did conduct electricity, and the results indicate that it is an ionic bond.

5. If the magnesium lost mass instead of gaining mass, what do you think was a possible source of the error?
A possible sorce of error would be to have either weighed wrong in the begining or to spill some of the magnesium before it is weighed.