Science E-Portfolio: 10th Practical Lesson: 1P11 Investigating Mixtures and Compunds

Another Science Practical lesson worth waiting for. Today, we will be exploring compounds and mixtures and of course experimenting with them.

That day, we had some food for thought before we started to gather our apparatus.

Both sulfur and iron are elements
When they are mixed, a mixture of iron and sulfur is formed.
When they are heated together, a compound, iron sulfide is formed

The apparatus we need for the 1st experiment are tripod stand, evaporating dish, glass rod, wire gauze and Bunsen Burner. The materials we require include sulfur powder, iron fillings, filter paper, a piece of paper and a magnet.

We had to place the sulfur powder on a piece of filter paper and observe and describe its appearance. From what I could see, I noted that the sulfur powder is yellow in colour. We then had to wrap one end of the magnet with a piece of paper and observe if the sulfur powder is attracted to the magnet. However, due to the fact that it is not a metal at all, it definitely cannot be attracted by the magnet.

Next, we had to pour some iron fillings on an evaporating dish and observe its appearance which is obviously grey powder and also whether it can be attracted by a magnet. It could be attracted by a magnet due to the fact that it is made up of iron which can be attracted by a magnet and it is a magnetic material.

Following that, we had to mix the two elements together which will give us a mixture. The mixture is yellowish grey with specks of yellow powder. When you put the magnet near to the mixture, what will happen? Well, the magnet will only attract the iron fillings but will not attract the sulfur powder.

The last step is for us to make a compound. How so? First, we had to heat the evaporating dish over the Bunsen Burner until no more changes occur. We had to allow the evaporating dish to cool down. Then, we observed the compound formed and describe its appearances. This time, it became a black solid which was quite interesting and cool too. When we held the magnet close to the compound, it only attracted some of the compound. We found it interesting and asked ourselves why and it was due to the fact that some of the iron fillings properties were lost during the heating process and thus the magnet could only attract some of the compound.

From these experiments, we can conclude that a mixture retains the properties of its constituents while a compound does not. We also had to plot a table and these were the results.