SG chem 2

This week was pretty busy. We learnt that we had a test coming up and we spent the whole week really understanding the material we were given and even learned some new material. We started off the week doing worksheet 3. In this worksheet we learned how to suggest formulas for the compounds by looking at the mass. At first, I didn't understand this at all. It didn't make sense that you could make a formula just from looking at compound b divided by compound a. However, after we did 3 or 4 of these kinds of problems, everything started to come together and I started to get how sketching particle diagrams and really thinking about it made sense. It's also important to make the compound numbers into improper fractions, otherwise it's really hard to see how many atoms of each element you're working with. We white-boarded everything as a class and even though the last question was really hard, it made sense when Toby came up and explained it in a different way.

Actually before that, we did some readings. We read all about Gay-Lussac and Humphry Davy and "The Race for Iodine". We did a worksheet on it as well, and I thought the reading was really interesting. Iodine is such a normal, common thing to hear about, but I've never really thought about how it actually came about. It was interesting how different Gay-Lussac and Davy were and how they didn't love each other because their countries were at war, but they were still able to discover iodine (not together, but both played major roles. Sucks that Davy was one day late!!). It also boggles my mind how these scientists worked without the technology we have today. Like the fact that Gay-Lussac flew 23000 ft in the air (by balloon!) to measure the earths magnetic field? That is insane. I'm not even completely sure how they created all the different elements (like sodium, potassium, magnesium, and more) in the first place! So crazy. 

We did a Daltons playhouse thing online (I was absent, but did it at home) and the last thing we worked on before the week was done was worksheet 4. Worksheet 4, in my opinion, was extremely easy. However, I think it was only easy because of how well I understood the previous material. I'm extremely glad we did the really hard stuff first, because now everything seems like a breeze :) Anyways, worksheet 4 was about expressing the ratios of the mass of each element to find the total mass and then figuring out, by calculating it mathematically, the percent composition of each compound. We only did the first couple problems in class and we white-boarded it afterwards and it seemed like every person in class got the same answer as my table. 

This is our board, shout out to Jimmy for his great handwriting!!

This was Maya, Nathan, and Philip's board, but we really liked how it looked :)

Anyways, that's pretty much what we focused on this week. I hate all the math we're starting to do (hopefully it doesn't get worse!), but as of right now it's not too bad and I'm feeling fairly confident about the test on tuesday. I think I just need to do a couple more practice problems like those in worksheet 3 and I will be all set!! Can't wait for a new week:)