Magnesium Lab

Materials-

• Bunsen burner
• Crucible
• Ring stand
• Clay triangle
• Magnesium ribbons
• Battery and cables
• Short string of Christmas lights

Safety Precautions

• Always have your goggles on.
• When the magnesium has ignited DO NOT look directly at the magnesium. It gives off damaging UV rays that can damage you eyes.
• Use tongs when igniting magnesium or moving a hot crucible.
  

Procedure

1. Once you have all of your materials gathered fin the mass of your crucible and record it on your data table.
2. Take your magnesium and place one strip at a time onto a scale until it registers a number. Record the number.
3. Crumble the magnesium into a loose ball then place it in the crucible and then place the lid on top of the crucible.
4. Put the crucible on the clay triangle and place it on the ring stand that is over the bunsen burner.
5. Turn on the bunsen burner so that it is heating the crucible with the magnesium.
6. Let it sit with the lid on for a few minutes.
7. If the magnesium does not ignite take the lid off and wait for a few minutes.
8. If it still has not ignited take out a strip of magnesium, hold it in the flame for a few moments until it ignites. Use your peripheral vision to observe the magnesium, DON'T look directly at it. Then place the strip back into the crucible.
   
9. Weigh the remaining magnesium ( weigh the magnesium and the crucible and subtract the weight of the crucible) and record it in your data table.
10. Then fill the crucible with water and connect the battery to the cables and the Christmas lights. If the Christmas lights give off a glow, you know that magnesium conducts electricity.

Question

1. Before= .1g of magnesium After= .4g Difference= gained .3g
   
2. Thermal energy was given off when the magnesium ignited and so was light. This means that a chemical reaction occurred, so we can assume that a new product was formed.
3. We know that the magnesium reacted with the air because it increased by .3g so it had to bond with other elements in the air because that made the mass increase.
4. Mg3 N2 Mg O
5. Magnesium Oxide, from looking at the ashes the majority of our product was white.
6. The magnesium compound did conduct an electric current. We know that it is ionic because It is between a metal (magnesium) and a nonmetal (oxygen/nitrogen). Also, this is just a guess, but ionic compounds make positive and negative ions, would that have anything to do with electricity flowing from one charge to the next?
7. An error could be that the person doing the experiment could have not massed the crucible or the magnesium correctly at the beginning or the end of the lab.
8. Yes
9. Milk of Magnesia