2nd Practical Lesson: 1P2,1P3 Using the Bunsen Burner, Types of Flames

19/1/11
Today was our second practical lesson and it was also taken by Mr Ong as our LSS teacher, Mr Low will be away for 3 weeks of NS. We stepped into the lab and eagerly awaited instructions from Mr Ong on what to do for that practical lesson. We were then introduced to the Bunsen Burner. Although I have heard of it before, but I have never used 1 before. However, there were safety precautions to take note of when handling a Bunsen Burner.

Look at this video to get a brief idea on what a bunsen burner is and how to operate it. There are different parts to a bunsen burner and we have to be familiar with it to operate the bunsen burner well and fast.

We also had a chance to operate the bunsen burner at last! I followed the procedures with my partner and we managed to light the bunsen burner and we were tasked to observe the flame of the bunsen burner.We observed that with the air hole closed, there is a luminous flame, but when the air hole was open, a non-luminous flame could be seen. The luminous flame was observed to be less steady and is constantly flickering but is also visible clearly to us. The non-luminous flame though was steady and had a blue cone shaped flame.


The worksheet also wanted us to stand ten steps away from the flame and see if we still can see the flame. Even though I can clearly see both flames, the answer was meant to be that the luminous flame was visible but not the non-luminous flame. I understand the reasoning behind this but actually, I could see the non-luminous flame better than the luminous flame. :P


We were also given the opportunity to heat a test tube and we had to take note of a lot of precautions such as not pointing the mouth of the test tube at anyone when heating. It was certainly fun but I felt that to a certain extent, it would be dangerous if we abused it. For example, one of my classmates caused a strike back. XD He was not careful with using the equipment, causing that to happen. I am sure there will still be lots more exciting practicals coming up! :D

A comparison of the 2 types of flames