Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Fun project suggestions?

Fun project suggestions?

Brummett - 30-4-2011 at 09:01

Hey, I'm in a high school chemistry class. Here's my problem:

The class is paced too slowly for me. I've opened my textbook about four times, and all of those times were just to get homework out of the book. Now I've just stopped doing any homework that's not a hand-out. I sleep in class or do homework for other classes. I still get A's on all of the tests.

Despite the slowness of the class, I really like chemistry, and apparently I'm really good at it. I want to find some fun projects I can do. Any suggestions?

smuv - 30-4-2011 at 09:16

Just because you are getting A's on the test does not mean your are learning chemistry. Do not squander your talent, read the book, understand the concepts, become a better chemist; not in order to get an A but to actually learn.

Check into this forum every once and a while, read around and you will get ideas.

Brummett - 30-4-2011 at 09:25

Trust me, I am learning it. I agree that test scores aren't always a good indication of knowledge, but I know that I'm learning it well. I know I'm getting the concepts because I'm not able to do the work until I understand how and why things are the way they are.

woelen - 30-4-2011 at 10:31

You are a good candidate for becoming an enthusiast home chemist. Just read on at the forums and try to do some experimenting on your own. Experimenting does not always need to be with fire, smoke and bangs, there are many other really cool and interesting things.

Some interesting things to start with are:
- electrolysis of common salts (e.g. NaCl, Na2CO3, KNO3) with different types of electrodes
- making chlorine from dilute HCl and swimming pool chlorinator (DO THIS OUTSIDE)
- making bromine (KBr or NaBr is easy to obtain) by means of electrolysis and by means of oxidation with chlorine
- making nice crystals of CuCl2.2H2O from copper wire and hydrochloric acid or CuSO4.5H2O from copper wire and dilute sulphuric acid

There are many more interesting things, but the ones I mentioned above just pop up in my mind and can be done without the need of special chemicals or special apparatus.

Brummett - 30-4-2011 at 10:37

I'll start with those. I found out that you can make piperonal from black pepper (Piperine extracted from black pepper, piperine used to make piperic acid, piperic acid used to make piperonal), but then I realized that that's super sketchy, because you can make drugs with it.

Those sound like a much better idea. Thanks!

MrHomeScientist - 4-5-2011 at 13:41

I first got into home chemistry by doing thermite reactions, so that's something to try (that does indeed involve fire

). To me the best part wasn't even the thermite reaction itself - it was finding bits of metal in the slag afterward. I was (and still am) amazed that you can make lumps of solid metal from some dull powders. I've made iron, manganese, chromium, silicon, and vanadium for my element collection using thermite. Titanium is my next target!

GreenD - 4-5-2011 at 17:17

Your third post and you bring up piperonal..

I know what you want.

Personally, my opinion - don't get into that stuff yet. You'll get fucked if you get caught making piperonal, and you WILL get caught at this stage.

I like extractions. I can't find the youtube vid at the moment, but someone shows how to distoill off lavender oil with a pot and a glass dish on top...

From essential oils you can get solvents and other stuff... cough.

It ain't real chemistry, but it's fun.

Since you're in highschool I'm guessing you don't have any glassware or reagents so not sure if I can help. Alot of pyrotechnics and electrolysis and the stuff mentioned above can be done with what you have and know now though!

If you really want to dive in, come up with a company name, rent out a small office with an air-outake ceiling, and get a commercial license to buy chemicals.

UKnowNotWatUDo - 4-5-2011 at 17:26

Creating a fake company name to order chemicals is ALWAYS a bad idea. Please do not do this. I promise it will lead to nothing good, because if you do get caught ordering something suspicious it will be hard to play the "I wasn't doing anything shady" card if it was ordered through a fake business that you set up.

Brummett - 6-5-2011 at 10:58

I can't see myself needing any chemicals that require that kind of legitimacy to order. If a project need a suspicious substance, I'll probably just find a different project.

What's a good way to get the ingredients for thermite reactions without buying online?

Bot0nist - 6-5-2011 at 11:08

Quote: Originally posted by Brummett

I can't see myself needing any chemicals that require that kind of legitimacy to order. If a project need a suspicious substance, I'll probably just find a different project.

What's a good way to get the ingredients for thermite reactions without buying online?

All over; rust, magnesium fire starters, pottery suppliers, the beach, ect. Reducers and oxidizers [boron(III) oxide, silicon(IV) oxide, chromium(III) oxide, manganese(IV) oxide, iron(III) oxide, iron(II,III) oxide, copper(II) oxide, lead(II,III,IV) oxide and others] are everywhere.

Try and find a source of fine aluminum. You don't need flash grade, so its not that much trouble to get. Check out the<a href="http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=10249 "> exotic thermites thread here.</a>

[Edited on 6-5-2011 by Bot0nist]

GreenD - 6-5-2011 at 11:23

Who said anything about a FAKE business name?

If you state what your company is making, and make what you state, there is no "FAKE" in there...

Brummett - 11-5-2011 at 15:18

Quote: Originally posted by Bot0nist

Thanks. Playing with fire is always fun.

I've also been thinking about making aerogel. I have a bunch of silica gel packets laying around in a bucket at school, so it seems like a good use to put it to.

redox - 13-5-2011 at 18:09

How do you plan on making aerogel? I was under the impression it is not a simple process.

Brummett - 14-5-2011 at 14:34

Making hydrophobic silica aerogel is quite involved, as it involves the use of liquid carbon dioxide. You need to build yourself a machine that does it, with lots of welding that has to resist high pressures and such.

But it seems like there are some other kinds of aerogel that are not as difficult to make, and my chemistry teacher said he'd help as long as it didn't seem dangerous.