Scioly.org

christseeker wrote:I am planning on buying HCl from amazon as shown as the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/Concentrated-Hydr ... loric+acid

Is this good enough? Do I need to dilute it in anyway to get 1M of HCl? What is 1 mole of HCl?

If you are a student, I strongly advise not buying chemicals on your own and instead have a teacher order it. Many chemicals used in labs are potentially dangerous (and HCl is a substance that requires careful handling at low concentrations, too). Concentrated HCl is typically 12M, which is far more concentrated than a lot of the HCl used in most high school experiments. I also strongly advise having supervision of a knowledgable teacher (probably chemistry) since even if some substances might be very mild on their own but can be involved in very violent reactions. Our university chemistry department mentions during safety orientation that a student many decades back was killed when a substance added to a waste bottle caused it to explode. I'd hate to see a student trying to learn science getting hurt out of unawareness.

Hi Bernard,
Thanks for your concern and advice. I am a homeschool mom preparing my two middle school kids for CB for the first time.
So will the product on the link work?

http://www.amazon.com/Concentrated-Hydr ... loric+acid

Is this good enough? Do I need to dilute it in anyway to get 1M of HCl? What is 1 mole of HCl?

christseeker wrote:Hi Bernard,
Thanks for your concern and advice. I am a homeschool mom preparing my two middle school kids for CB for the first time. :)
So will the product on the link work?

http://www.amazon.com/Concentrated-Hydr ... loric+acid

Is this good enough? Do I need to dilute it in anyway to get 1M of HCl? What is 1 mole of HCl?

The table here (https://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/ ... arity.html) tells me that 32% concentrated hydrochloric acid, the product on Amazon, should have a molarity of 10.2 M, which means for every liter you have 10.2 mols of HCl. For 1 mol of HCl, that would be 1 mol * 1/10.2 M = 0.098 L of concentrated HCl.

Even as a parent, if you don't have formal chemistry, etc. training, you have to be especially careful with adhering to procedures. Doing untested experiments can be very dangerous! And as always lab coats, eye protection, and hand protection are important. Also, to be safe, I should add that higher concentrations of HCl offgas.

I've never ordered HCl before, but it seems like the product is HCl, so it should work.

You might want to look instead at the official SO kits from Ward's Science. There is a Crime Busters kit here: https://wardsci.com/store/catalog/produ ... 470218-366

If's that's to pricey for you, they have a variety of other kits as well (See https://wardsci.com/store/search/search ... searchForm) . All of their kits are designed for students and educators, so it's less likely you'll get something incorrect like you might off of a random Amazon purchase

You can get 12% off the price if you use the coupon code found in the front of the rules manuals.

Chalker,
Your reply is very helpful!
Do you mind send the second link again? It did not work for me.

christseeker wrote:Chalker,
Your reply is very helpful!
Do you mind send the second link again? It did not work for me.

Just go to the first link and put "Hydrochloric Acid" in the search box at top.

What form of metals will the contestants be given during the competition? I am a homeschooling mom preparing my kids for CB. I found a site selling metals in foils, but I am wondering whether that is a good choice for their preparation. In past competitions, were the metals in the form of powder, sticks, pellets, sheets, or other?

christseeker wrote:What form of metals will the contestants be given during the competition? I am a homeschooling mom preparing my kids for CB. I found a site selling metals in foils, but I am wondering whether that is a good choice for their preparation. In past competitions, were the metals in the form of powder, sticks, pellets, sheets, or other?

In me experience, it depended on the proctor. Generally, we received pellets, but the occasional proctor would give us powder, and one gave us a copper pipe (but this should not happen most of the time.) That being said, I would recommend prepping with all of the above. (A perk of that is your kids would not be able to become familiar with what the pellets themselves look like- instead, they would have to think. I run into this problem all the time as a coach!)

when I did the competition the had it in small bent triangles. we did not know a lot but we got 8th. I don't even know what an element is.

whovian11 wrote:when I did the competition the had it in small bent triangles. we did not know a lot but we got 8th. I don't even know what an element is.

Look here. Memorize them. Ay de los mío.