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dyt wrote:What do you use cobalt glass for? We need help please!:]

You are supposed to use Cobalt Blue glass to filter out any sodium ions in the powder...sodium burns yellow, so by placing the glass in front of the flame you can get a clearer, easier read on the flame's color.

Did anyone else have a test that had gas chromatography on it. Or can anyone tell me how to tell if the gas was High octane, low octane, or middle octane

haha i remember that! we had no idea tho...

Cobalt blue glass helps you see the flame test results a little clearer, like when you burn calcium. I don't find it terribly useful.

yeah.... i don't like the glass we have.. it's REALLY blue so it's rather hard to see ANYTHING...

sweetcoop wrote:Did anyone else have a test that had gas chromatography on it. Or can anyone tell me how to tell if the gas was High octane, low octane, or middle octane

Had this at a regional, and was completely stumped too. Anyone know how to do this?

ok. so at our regionals, we had faulty pH paper, and as a result, we missed two of the powders. Anyone have any suggestions as to which kind of pH paper works well? We were going to buy pHydrion insta-check 1-13 paper. does that stuff work?

I really was mad about that paper. EVERYTHING turned the paper neutral, except for the HCl. which was pretty strong. but the thing is, the paper cost us 4 points, and those points cost us first!! We really, REALLY dont want that to happen again. so any suggestions?

I like this kind

Yeah, I've seen that before. We had a simpler version, but our school's other team used it. Apparently it didn't work either, but we don't know how old it was. Last year we used some stuff that my 9th grade bio teacher gave us, and it worked really well. I can't remember what it was called. She also didn't return any of our emails... Oh well. All I can remember is that it was a roll in a plastic case, and it came in a blue box.

Also, I'm not that great at reading the multiple colors paper. That could be a problem... Lol

pH paper can be purchased as "Broad Spectrum" (i.e. 1-14), but can also be purchased as narrow range (i.e. 5-7 or 8-10, etc). In this event, with a half of pH point being critical, I'd make sure that you have narrow range acidic, narrow range alkali, and broad range to see which narrow range to use... The more narrow range will give you much greater color variation and should really help zoom in on the exact pH of the solution

The rules do not indicate quantity of student supplied material, so having three boxes of it should not be an issue, although it may be questioned.