Scioly.org

Really! Diet Coke is less dense than regular Coke? I must try this...

Skink wrote:I don't think so...both are the same except for sugar vs. aspartame. Both solutes should be relatively nonacidic, so I'm guessing the only observable difference between them is the following, though I'm not sure if you could determine this based on what was given...

I think you would be able to determine this based on what was given. All you need are the beakers, water, and the soda cans..correct?

So, what is the topic for chem lab looking like for next year (2011-2012 season)?

manutd94 wrote:So, what is the topic for chem lab looking like for next year (2011-2012 season)?

I'm pretty sure, according to the wonderful chalker, that it is reduction/oxidation and periodicity.

Periodicity. Yay.

I should be better at this now that I've gone through AP Chem. At regionals, we accidentally found the electron potential by doing E(anode)-E(cathode) instead of the other way around. The rest of the test was easy, and that probably brought us down to 11th from a medal.

Oh well. Should be fun next year.

Just a question: Did anyone do the nationals Chem Lab test? It seemed... easy.

I am sooooooo mad about this test. We literally finished the test before we began the second lab portion, because it was so short and easy. We checked our answers afterwards, probably 5 times, but we didn't see one little tiny mistake we made.
What did we end up with? 28th! With like a half point worth of mistake... This test was probably the second easiest test I had in this year.....
What did you guys think about it? Does anybody know how they broke the ties?

I'd guess that they graded the tests really harshly. You had to show every single step they were expecting to be written down, or else you would not get the points. I think we lost points on the density lab. It seemed so simple; I think we did not show enough work.

Tidus wrote:I am sooooooo mad about this test. We literally finished the test before we began the second lab portion, because it was so short and easy. We checked our answers afterwards, probably 5 times, but we didn't see one little tiny mistake we made.
What did we end up with? 28th! With like a half point worth of mistake... This test was probably the second easiest test I had in this year.....
What did you guys think about it? Does anybody know how they broke the ties?

Yeah, we got 27th with a very good test. I can't specifically remember any tiebreakers, but I do remember going through the test and finding few, if any mistakes. The problem was that it was not only east but also very short; there must have been no stratification between "good" and "mediocre" whatsoever.

Paradox21 wrote:I'd guess that they graded the tests really harshly. You had to show every single step they were expecting to be written down, or else you would not get the points. I think we lost points on the density lab. It seemed so simple; I think we did not show enough work.

We might also have lost points because of your terrible handwriting. But really, how much work can you show for density? Mass, volume... divide. We even wrote the formula down. But I do think the test was too easy for nationals; they may have encountered the problem of one point being a five-place difference or something similar. Maybe they got a lot of people on adding acid to water or sig figs or some tiny detail.

EDIT: This was a repeat... sorry.